Kankakee Bus Passenger Executive Order Wholly Unconstitutional –

ILLINOIS (ECWd) –

Opinion: After reading about all of the municipalities in and around Cook County, Illinois passing Ordinances and Executive Orders geared towards limiting the dropping off of individuals traveling from Texas, something immediately didn’t seem right.

Since when must anyone riding a bus subject themselves to a background check, and have that background check provided to local police departments?

So, I contacted several attorneys, and each of them cut me off in mid-sentence saying it was wholly unconstitutional and some could not believe the county state’s attorneys in those counties had not brought suit against those municipalities to declare such ordinances and executive orders invalid for being violative of the constitution.

Of course, this all starts by declaring a “local state of emergency.”

Let’s look at the spineless (everyone knows who this is specifically targeting, but it is never written down) Executive Order from Kankakee:

• since neighboring communities passed similar ordinances – we will too
• only applies to intercity busses and discharging or loading of passengers within the city
• bus operator must make application at least five full business days in advance
• bus operator must have preapproval in writing
• bus operator must provide names of passengers to police at least five full business days in advance
• bus operator must perform background check on each passenger (including bus driver and contract workers) and provide it to police at least five full business days in advance
• written authorization from head of public body initiating the transfer
• no weekend or holiday drop-offs
• no drop-offs except between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm
• cannot be more than 30 minutes prior to or after approved drop-off time
• subject to $750 fine per passenger
• bus subject to immediate seizure, towing, storage, administrative fees, and $5000 fine
• subject to unspecified criminal charges

40 United States Code, Section 1983 was the most common comment to my questions –

Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer’s judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable. For the purposes of this section, any Act of Congress applicable exclusively to the District of Columbia shall be considered to be a statute of the District of Columbia.

We understand at least one bus operator has filed, or soon will file, a lawsuit against the City of Chicago for similar alleged violations.