Full Text of HR0904 102nd General Assembly
HR0904 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, Future Attorney General Jim Ryan was born on | 3 | | February 21, 1946; a native of Illinois, he was born in | 4 | | Chicago; he moved to the suburb of Villa Park with his family; | 5 | | and
| 6 | | WHEREAS, Growing up in the church, young Jim Ryan found a | 7 | | series of mentors and inspirations in the DuPage County | 8 | | educational institutions affiliated with the Order of Saint | 9 | | Benedict; he attended Saint Procopius Academy, an all-boys | 10 | | school at the time of his attendance, and then Saint Procopius | 11 | | College; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, With his home in Villa Park and his place of | 13 | | schooling in Lisle, before his eyes, Jim Ryan could see how | 14 | | DuPage County and the United States were growing and changing | 15 | | in the 1950s and 1960s; throughout his life, he would be a | 16 | | voice for ordered change and thoughtful continuity; and | 17 | | WHEREAS, Graduating from college in 1968, Jim Ryan chose | 18 | | the law for his life and began his studies at Chicago-Kent | 19 | | College of Law; in 1971, he received his degree and passed the | 20 | | bar exam, soon commencing work as a prosecutor within the | 21 | | Office of the DuPage County State's Attorney; and |
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, After experience as both a senior member of the | 2 | | DuPage County State's Attorney's office and in private | 3 | | practice, Jim Ryan sought the nomination of the Republican | 4 | | Party for DuPage County State's Attorney in 1984 and was his | 5 | | party's nominee in the general election; he became the chief | 6 | | prosecutor in Illinois's second-most-populous county; and | 7 | | WHEREAS, During Jim Ryan's legal leadership in DuPage | 8 | | County, the population of the county grew from 658,835 in the | 9 | | 1980 United States Census to 781,666 in 1990, with further | 10 | | growth towards 904,161 in 2000; this growth created new | 11 | | opportunities and challenges, including the massive office | 12 | | move associated with the opening of the new DuPage County | 13 | | Government Center in 1990 on the outskirts of the county seat | 14 | | of Wheaton; and | 15 | | WHEREAS, As state's attorney, Jim Ryan won the praise of | 16 | | his neighbors for the operations of his key office during this | 17 | | time of growth and change, winning reelection in 1988 and | 18 | | 1992; also respected by his fellow state's attorneys, he was | 19 | | chosen as president of the Illinois State's Attorneys | 20 | | Association, thus becoming the chief voice in Springfield of | 21 | | solutions to the challenges faced by professional prosecutors; | 22 | | and | 23 | | WHEREAS, With a tough-on-crime image derived from his ten |
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| 1 | | years as DuPage County's lead prosecutor, Jim Ryan was | 2 | | nominated by the Republicans in 1994 to be the Attorney | 3 | | General of Illinois; when he won the statewide election in | 4 | | November 1994, this switched control of the Attorney General's | 5 | | Office between the two political parties; and | 6 | | WHEREAS, Despite the partisan nature of politics, as | 7 | | attorney general, Jim Ryan saw it as his mission to work | 8 | | closely with prosecutors, law enforcement officials, and | 9 | | leaders from all over Illinois, including his former fellow | 10 | | state's attorney Richard M. Daley of Cook County, a Democrat, | 11 | | who had become the mayor of Chicago; and | 12 | | WHEREAS, One of the newest authorizations granted to the | 13 | | Office of the Illinois Attorney General when Jim Ryan took | 14 | | over in 1995 was the authorization to convene statewide grand | 15 | | juries; the Statewide Grand Jury Act (1991) had raised serious | 16 | | concerns among many county state's attorneys; and | 17 | | WHEREAS, As an experienced former state's attorney | 18 | | himself, with ties of friendship and acquaintanceship across | 19 | | Illinois, Jim Ryan brokered the current system of written and | 20 | | unwritten agreements that has made the Statewide Grand Jury | 21 | | Bureau within the Office of the Attorney General a key element | 22 | | in the Illinois prosecution of multi-county cases, especially | 23 | | cases involving guns, drugs, or computers; and |
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, By 1995, Illinois and its Medicaid system, paid | 2 | | for by Illinois taxpayers, had incurred billions of dollars in | 3 | | current and future healthcare billings for treatments provided | 4 | | to Medicaid-eligible Illinois residents who had smoked | 5 | | cigarettes and who had then developed cancer and other health | 6 | | conditions related to smoking; and | 7 | | WHEREAS, In November 1996, the State of Illinois, with Jim | 8 | | Ryan in the lead in his capacity as attorney general, filed a | 9 | | major lawsuit against the U.S. tobacco industry, including all | 10 | | of the major firms that worked together at that time to | 11 | | dominate the manufacture and supply of cigarettes; and | 12 | | WHEREAS, This lawsuit required an unprecedented level of | 13 | | interstate cooperation between the attorneys general of the | 14 | | states that had filed lawsuits of this type; Jim Ryan and his | 15 | | colleagues had to deploy full-time coordination teams to share | 16 | | data and case-law information in order to create a united | 17 | | front for their litigation; and | 18 | | WHEREAS, Due in part to his own hard work and with the | 19 | | active cooperation of many other attorneys general from across | 20 | | the United States, Jim Ryan was able to reach and announce a | 21 | | landmark settlement with the tobacco companies in 1998; the | 22 | | agreement included a future cash flow for the plaintiff states |
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| 1 | | derived from moneys taken in by suppliers of cigarettes; and | 2 | | WHEREAS, Under this settlement, the industry also barred | 3 | | itself, on a nationwide basis, from many forms of tobacco | 4 | | advertising, including advertising featuring cartoons and | 5 | | anthropomorphic mascots (Joe Camel) designed to attract | 6 | | underage customers; and | 7 | | WHEREAS, During the 24 years since the announcement of | 8 | | this settlement, Illinois and its taxpayers have received | 9 | | payments from the tobacco industry that now total $9.1 | 10 | | billion, money that has not had to be levied in taxes; and | 11 | | WHEREAS, The Office of the Illinois Attorney General now | 12 | | routinely contacts, talks to, communicates with, and | 13 | | cooperates in a wide variety of policy activities and | 14 | | litigation activities with other attorneys general in other | 15 | | U.S. states; this pattern of interstate cooperation between | 16 | | the chief lawyers of the separate states is another enduring | 17 | | legacy of Jim Ryan and illustrates his commitment to | 18 | | cooperation, change, and continuity; and | 19 | | WHEREAS, After the announcement of the tobacco settlement, | 20 | | Jim Ryan ran for re-election in 1998, winning in a landslide; | 21 | | and |
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, Urged by many across Illinois to run for Governor | 2 | | of Illinois in 2002 upon the retirement of George Ryan, Jim | 3 | | Ryan did so and was the Republican Party nominee; | 4 | | unfortunately, the names of George Ryan and the Democratic | 5 | | nominee for the same office, Rod Blagojevich, echoed louder in | 6 | | the press and in the minds of voters than the honored name of | 7 | | Jim Ryan; and | 8 | | WHEREAS, After leaving the office of attorney general at | 9 | | the end of 2002, Jim Ryan returned to his educational home, now | 10 | | Benedictine University, as an instructor and teacher in | 11 | | political science and in criminal justice; and | 12 | | WHEREAS, In 2005, Jim Ryan and his friends established the | 13 | | Center for Civic Leadership at Benedictine University as an | 14 | | ongoing center of teaching and training for young adults, | 15 | | inside and outside the Benedictine student body, in civil, | 16 | | open dialogue across political boundaries; and | 17 | | WHEREAS, In the years following 2003, Jim Ryan also | 18 | | practiced law at Gardner, Carton & Douglas in Chicago and was | 19 | | of counsel at Jim Ryan & Associates in Naperville; and
| 20 | | WHEREAS, Throughout his life as a lawyer, public official, | 21 | | and teacher, Jim Ryan was sustained by the love of his family; | 22 | | in 2022, this included his wife, Marie; his son, John, and |
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| 1 | | John's wife, Stacie; his son, Jim, and Jim's wife, Jennifer; | 2 | | his son, Matthew, and Matthew's wife, Melissa; and his | 3 | | daughter, Amy Ryan; and many grandchildren; and
| 4 | | WHEREAS, Jim Ryan's life included the devastating losses | 5 | | of his daughter Anne Marie "Annie" Ryan and his son Patrick J. | 6 | | Ryan, whom he always loved; and
| 7 | | WHEREAS, On June 12, 2022, the life of former Attorney | 8 | | General Jim Ryan came to an end in DuPage County, his home | 9 | | county; in an hour of great partisanship, his legacy was | 10 | | praised by leading Illinoisans from both sides of the | 11 | | political aisle; therefore, be it
| 12 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 13 | | HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 14 | | we join in mourning the death of former Attorney General Jim | 15 | | Ryan, an honored son of Illinois; and be it further | 16 | | RESOLVED, That we remember the enduring contributions made | 17 | | by Jim Ryan to the professional operations of the lead | 18 | | public-sector attorneys of Illinois, states' attorneys, and | 19 | | the Office of the Attorney General alike; and be it further
| 20 | | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution should | 21 | | be presented to the wife of Attorney General Jim Ryan, Annie |
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