Court Opinion

ID: 9534479
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:40:12.724415+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:30:53.412636
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE CRAVEN, concurring in part and dissenting in part: I agree with the result and the reasoning of the opinion insofar as it relates to an appeal by the State under Rule 604 (58 Ill. 2d R. 604). The order here, plain and simply, is not appealable by the State under that rule. That’s all we really need to decide. The majority opinion reaches to decide that the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Confidentiality Act is unconstitutional. As I view it, the protection of confidentiality given by that act has no application here because the confidentiality is extended to therapist and to the patient and not to the State and prosecution. It is, of course, axiomatic that courts do not decide the constitutionality of statutes unless such decision is essential to the resolution of the case. Here it isn’t, and we should not offend the axiom. Thus, I concur with the result reached but not the unnecessary observation the court makes with reference to the constitutionality of the statute.