HR0904 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0904 LRB102 28470 MST 40346 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Future Attorney General Jim Ryan was born on February 21, 1946; a native of Illinois, he was born in Chicago; he moved to the suburb of Villa Park with his family; and

WHEREAS, Growing up in the church, young Jim Ryan found a series of mentors and inspirations in the DuPage County educational institutions affiliated with the Order of Saint Benedict; he attended Saint Procopius Academy, an all-boys school at the time of his attendance, and then Saint Procopius College; and

WHEREAS, With his home in Villa Park and his place of schooling in Lisle, before his eyes, Jim Ryan could see how DuPage County and the United States were growing and changing in the 1950s and 1960s; throughout his life, he would be a voice for ordered change and thoughtful continuity; and

WHEREAS, Graduating from college in 1968, Jim Ryan chose the law for his life and began his studies at Chicago-Kent College of Law; in 1971, he received his degree and passed the bar exam, soon commencing work as a prosecutor within the Office of the DuPage County State's Attorney; and

WHEREAS, After experience as both a senior member of the DuPage County State's Attorney's office and in private practice, Jim Ryan sought the nomination of the Republican Party for DuPage County State's Attorney in 1984 and was his party's nominee in the general election; he became the chief prosecutor in Illinois's second-most-populous county; and

WHEREAS, During Jim Ryan's legal leadership in DuPage County, the population of the county grew from 658,835 in the 1980 United States Census to 781,666 in 1990, with further growth towards 904,161 in 2000; this growth created new opportunities and challenges, including the massive office move associated with the opening of the new DuPage County Government Center in 1990 on the outskirts of the county seat of Wheaton; and

WHEREAS, As state's attorney, Jim Ryan won the praise of his neighbors for the operations of his key office during this time of growth and change, winning reelection in 1988 and 1992; also respected by his fellow state's attorneys, he was chosen as president of the Illinois State's Attorneys Association, thus becoming the chief voice in Springfield of solutions to the challenges faced by professional prosecutors; and

WHEREAS, With a tough-on-crime image derived from his ten years as DuPage County's lead prosecutor, Jim Ryan was nominated by the Republicans in 1994 to be the Attorney General of Illinois; when he won the statewide election in November 1994, this switched control of the Attorney General's Office between the two political parties; and

WHEREAS, Despite the partisan nature of politics, as attorney general, Jim Ryan saw it as his mission to work closely with prosecutors, law enforcement officials, and leaders from all over Illinois, including his former fellow state's attorney Richard M. Daley of Cook County, a Democrat, who had become the mayor of Chicago; and

WHEREAS, One of the newest authorizations granted to the Office of the Illinois Attorney General when Jim Ryan took over in 1995 was the authorization to convene statewide grand juries; the Statewide Grand Jury Act (1991) had raised serious concerns among many county state's attorneys; and

WHEREAS, As an experienced former state's attorney himself, with ties of friendship and acquaintanceship across Illinois, Jim Ryan brokered the current system of written and unwritten agreements that has made the Statewide Grand Jury Bureau within the Office of the Attorney General a key element in the Illinois prosecution of multi-county cases, especially cases involving guns, drugs, or computers; and

WHEREAS, By 1995, Illinois and its Medicaid system, paid for by Illinois taxpayers, had incurred billions of dollars in current and future healthcare billings for treatments provided to Medicaid-eligible Illinois residents who had smoked cigarettes and who had then developed cancer and other health conditions related to smoking; and

WHEREAS, In November 1996, the State of Illinois, with Jim Ryan in the lead in his capacity as attorney general, filed a major lawsuit against the U.S. tobacco industry, including all of the major firms that worked together at that time to dominate the manufacture and supply of cigarettes; and

WHEREAS, This lawsuit required an unprecedented level of interstate cooperation between the attorneys general of the states that had filed lawsuits of this type; Jim Ryan and his colleagues had to deploy full-time coordination teams to share data and case-law information in order to create a united front for their litigation; and

WHEREAS, Due in part to his own hard work and with the active cooperation of many other attorneys general from across the United States, Jim Ryan was able to reach and announce a landmark settlement with the tobacco companies in 1998; the agreement included a future cash flow for the plaintiff states derived from moneys taken in by suppliers of cigarettes; and

WHEREAS, Under this settlement, the industry also barred itself, on a nationwide basis, from many forms of tobacco advertising, including advertising featuring cartoons and anthropomorphic mascots (Joe Camel) designed to attract underage customers; and

WHEREAS, During the 24 years since the announcement of this settlement, Illinois and its taxpayers have received payments from the tobacco industry that now total $9.1 billion, money that has not had to be levied in taxes; and

WHEREAS, The Office of the Illinois Attorney General now routinely contacts, talks to, communicates with, and cooperates in a wide variety of policy activities and litigation activities with other attorneys general in other U.S. states; this pattern of interstate cooperation between the chief lawyers of the separate states is another enduring legacy of Jim Ryan and illustrates his commitment to cooperation, change, and continuity; and

WHEREAS, After the announcement of the tobacco settlement, Jim Ryan ran for re-election in 1998, winning in a landslide; and

WHEREAS, Urged by many across Illinois to run for Governor of Illinois in 2002 upon the retirement of George Ryan, Jim Ryan did so and was the Republican Party nominee; unfortunately, the names of George Ryan and the Democratic nominee for the same office, Rod Blagojevich, echoed louder in the press and in the minds of voters than the honored name of Jim Ryan; and

WHEREAS, After leaving the office of attorney general at the end of 2002, Jim Ryan returned to his educational home, now Benedictine University, as an instructor and teacher in political science and in criminal justice; and

WHEREAS, In 2005, Jim Ryan and his friends established the Center for Civic Leadership at Benedictine University as an ongoing center of teaching and training for young adults, inside and outside the Benedictine student body, in civil, open dialogue across political boundaries; and

WHEREAS, In the years following 2003, Jim Ryan also practiced law at Gardner, Carton & Douglas in Chicago and was of counsel at Jim Ryan & Associates in Naperville; and

WHEREAS, Throughout his life as a lawyer, public official, and teacher, Jim Ryan was sustained by the love of his family; in 2022, this included his wife, Marie; his son, John, and John's wife, Stacie; his son, Jim, and Jim's wife, Jennifer; his son, Matthew, and Matthew's wife, Melissa; and his daughter, Amy Ryan; and many grandchildren; and

WHEREAS, Jim Ryan's life included the devastating losses of his daughter Anne Marie "Annie" Ryan and his son Patrick J. Ryan, whom he always loved; and

WHEREAS, On June 12, 2022, the life of former Attorney General Jim Ryan came to an end in DuPage County, his home county; in an hour of great partisanship, his legacy was praised by leading Illinoisans from both sides of the political aisle; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we join in mourning the death of former Attorney General Jim Ryan, an honored son of Illinois; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we remember the enduring contributions made by Jim Ryan to the professional operations of the lead public-sector attorneys of Illinois, states' attorneys, and the Office of the Attorney General alike; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution should be presented to the wife of Attorney General Jim Ryan, Annie Ryan.