Court Opinion

ID: 9742913
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:22:36.337063+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:37.700408
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE UNDERWOOD, specially concurring: I concur in the court’s judgment under the compulsion of Waller v. Florida (1970), 397, U.S. 387, 25 L. Ed. 2d 435, 90 S. Ct. 1184. In Waller the Supreme Court held that identical conduct could not be punished as a violation of a municipal ordinance and again as a violation of a State statute “since both are arms of the same sovereign.” (397 U.S. 387, 393, 25 L. Ed. 435, 440, 90 S. Ct. 1184, 1188.) That holding, it seems to me, is conclusive on the facts of this case, for the contempt of court is an offense against the sovereign State of Illinois, acting through its judicial branch, and the aggravated battery and attempted murder charges represent direct violations of the same sovereign’s criminal laws.