April 24, 2025
Earlier this month, the CBF joined the Chicago Bar Association and Illinois State Bar Association to lead a statewide delegation to advocate for critical access to justice issues in conjunction with the American Bar Association’s annual ABA Day in Washington.
This year’s group of leaders included partners from the Illinois Supreme Court, the Administrative Office of Illinois Courts, the American Bar Association, and the Legal Services Corporation. Together, we met with Senators Durbin and Duckworth and with Representatives or staff from Congressional districts across Illinois.
Funding for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), which continues to play an integral role in supporting legal aid in Illinois and throughout the country, was again one of our priority issues. The vital services provided by LSC’s three Illinois grantees–Legal Aid Chicago, Land of Lincoln Legal Aid, and Prairie State Legal Services–help safeguard people’s livelihoods, homes, health, and families throughout the state. Sustaining LSC funding at its current level is particularly important this year, with other federal sources of legal aid funding under stress.
Full funding for the federal judiciary and judicial security was our other major priority issue. This funding is essential to address not only escalating physical and cyber threats faced by our judges but also ensure that the Federal Public Defender Program is sufficiently resourced to ensure all eligible defendants can access their Sixth Amendment right to counsel. The CBF and its partners also highlighted the importance of the establishment of a State Judicial Threat and Intelligence Resource Center within the State Justice Institute to help ensure that our state judges are similarly protected and to promote coordination with the federal court.
In this time of uncertainty and growing need, we were encouraged by the continued strong, bipartisan support from the Illinois congressional delegation on these vital issues.
You can learn more about these issues and the CBF’s larger advocacy efforts on the CBF website or by contacting Roya Samarghandi, CBF Chief Advocacy & Innovation Officer, at rsamarghandi@chicagobarfoundation.org.
