Monday, November 10: Cultivating Seeds of Change
From policy to practice, we’re planting the seeds that transform [...]
Capstone Event for the Future Justice Lawyers of Chicago
On August 8, the Future Justice Lawyers of Chicago (FJLOC) [...]
Introducing the 2025 FJLOC Cohort’s Ambitious Social Justice Projects
Felix Mitchell, Future Justice Lawyers of Chicago Program Coordinator The [...]
Celebrating 55 Years: Looking Back at the History of the Collaboration for Justice
On June 12th, 2025, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts and the Chicago Council of Lawyers will be hosting our annual summer social—this year celebrating the 55th anniversary of the Fund for Justice. As we gear up for that anniversary party, we’re looking back and the almost six decades of collaboration between our two organizations.
People Over Punishment: Collaboration for Justice Annual Fundraiser on November 7th
The event will feature a keynote by the City of Chicago’s first-ever Deputy Mayor of Community Safety, Garien Gatewood, and an interactive conversation with the Chicago Appleseed and the Chicago Council of Lawyers research team, Naomi Johnson, Austin Segal, and Elizabeth Monkus, who will present on our 2024 research and advocacy efforts to put people over punishment.
“Haste Makes Waste” in Courtrooms Too: Balancing Quality with Quantity in Response to the Immigration Backlog
Since 2017, the backlog of pending immigration cases in the United States has been growing exponentially. Today, there are over two million pending cases in the U.S. immigration court system. Over the past few months, the situation has significantly worsened, with a record-breaking number of new deportation cases filed in the court system in August, putting the total number of new deportation cases at 1,230,000 in FY2023. With the court system facing this unprecedented number of cases, the initial response from the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) has been to increase the number of immigration judges.
Pretextual Vehicle Stops—A Pipeline to Police Testilying
Pretextual traffic stops occur when an officer pulls over a driver for an alleged minor infraction – an expired registration tag, say, or a burned out taillight. But then the officer uses the stop as an excuse to fish for evidence of a crime unrelated to the original reason for the stop. As alleged in a proposed class action lawsuit filed in June by five Black and Latine motorists, Wilkins v. City of Chicago: “Traffic stops on the city’s predominantly Black and Latino South and West [S]ides…are typically for minor violations—or for no reason at all—and are a tool for officers to search and detain minority residents.”
Commitment to Justice Awards
Our Collaboration for Justice is thrilled to announce that on Thursday, June 8, 2023, we will gather at the Ivy Room in Chicago for our Commitment to Justice Awards.
NEW REPORT | One Size Doesn’t Fit All: A Review of Post-Plea Problem-Solving Courts in Cook County
This report focuses on Cook County’s “post-plea” diversion courts. Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts and the Chicago Council of Lawyers are excited to release our new report, One Size Doesn’t Fit All: A Review of Post-Plea Problem-Solving Courts in Cook County. In it, we offer a holistic picture of the scope of specialty (or “problem-solving”) courts, which have become an increasingly popular tool for lowering the number of people in prisons in the United States.
We’ve Joined 400+ Organizations in Urging the Illinois Supreme Court to Affirm the Constitutionality of the Pretrial Fairness Act
Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts and the Chicago Council of Lawyers have joined the 37 members of the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice and 389 other national, state, and local organizations in submitting an amicus brief to the Illinois Supreme Court in the case of Rowe vs. Raoul, which considers the constitutionality of the Pretrial Fairness Act. The brief, filed by the ACLU of Illinois and the law firm of Hughes, Socol, Piers, Resnick & Dym Ltd., argues forcefully that the Illinois Supreme Court should uphold the constitutionality of the Pretrial Fairness Act and allow the end of money bond to proceed in Illinois. We are proud to support the brief.
