science

Illinois wiretapping law

Illinois wiretapping law is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Illinois wiretapping law rather than just read about it. In short: Illinois's wiretapping law (720 Illinois Compiled Statutes 5 / Criminal Code of 2012. Article 14, also called the Illinois eavesdropping law) was a "two-party consent" law.

Key takeaways

Illinois wiretapping law belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Illinois wiretapping law to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Illinois wiretapping law from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Illinois's wiretapping law (720 Illinois Compiled Statutes 5 / Criminal Code of 2012. Article 14, also called the Illinois eavesdropping law) was a "two-party consent" law. Illinois made it a crime to use an "eavesdropping device" to overhear or record a phone call or conversation without the consent of all parties to the conversation. The law was ruled unconstitutional in 2014 by the Illinois Supreme Court, but was replaced by a near-identical law later that same year.

History In 2009, Christopher Drew was arrested for "selling artwork without a permit" on State Street in the downtown Chicago Loop. He also had charges brought against him for "felony eavesdropping on a government official." In August 2010, Tiawanda Moore had criminal wiretapping charges brought against her for secretly recording police officers with her BlackBerry when she was filing a complaint for sexual harassment. In August 2011, a jury cleared her of the charges brought against her, and in 2012, Moore filed a federal suit against the city, alleging "unreasonable seizure, false arrest and malicious prosecution".

Court proceedings In 2010, the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit ACLU v. Alvarez against Cook County State Attorney Anita Alvarez, to block prosecution of ACLU staff for recording police officers performing their duties in public places, one of the group's long-standing monitoring missions. On 2 March 2012, Criminal Courts Judge Stanley Sacks deemed the Illinois wiretapping law unconstitutional, potentially criminalizing "wholly innocent conduct". In November 2012, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of this ruling. On March 20, 2014, the Illinois Supreme Court declared the Illinois wiretapping law unconstitutional unanimously in People v. Melongo and People v. Clark.

Revised law Following the Melongo and Clark decisions, the state legislature drafted a bill amending the wiretapping statute to make it constitutionally compliant. The bill was injected into an unrelated piece of legislation, and was passed as SB1342 late in the legislative session. On December 30, 2014, Governor Pat Quinn signed the bill into law as Public Act 098-1142. SB1342 makes changes to the original language of the wiretapping law, adding that in order to commit a criminal offense, a person must be recording "in a surreptitious manner". The bill's sponsors, Elaine Nekritz and Kwame Raoul, claim the law upholds the rights of citizens to record in public.

See also Law of Illinois Glik v. Cunniffe

References

External links Illinois Compiled Statutes (720 ILCS 5)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Illinois wiretapping law

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Illinois wiretapping law claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Illinois wiretapping law before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Illinois wiretapping law ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Illinois wiretapping law

In research: Illinois wiretapping law appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Illinois wiretapping law in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Illinois wiretapping law is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Freedom of speech in the United States, Illinois law, Illinois statutes, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Illinois wiretapping law outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Illinois wiretapping law in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Illinois wiretapping law means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Illinois wiretapping law out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Illinois wiretapping law in simple terms?

Illinois's wiretapping law (720 Illinois Compiled Statutes 5 / Criminal Code of 2012. Article 14, also called the Illinois eavesdropping law) was a "two-party consent" law.

Why does Illinois wiretapping law matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Illinois wiretapping law?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Illinois wiretapping law.