Those who disregarded the order could be arrested. Several of those arrested during the three years the law was enforced challenged its constitutionality, and the Illinois Supreme Court in 1997 struck it down as unconstitutionally vague. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state high court's decision last week. Justice John Paul Stevens, a Chicago native, said the law was too broad. He was joined by Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen G. Breyer.
Some school districts enforce anti-loitering rules as well.
The city of Chicago pointed to a 1994 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, which had upheld an anti-loitering rule of the Maine Township, Ill., high school district against a vagueness challenge. 1999 Editorial Projects in Education Vol.