Press Release from Office of Jacqueline Collins
| By Mary Kuhn - Feb 28th, 2007 at 1:31 pm EST |
| Also listed in: Sudan Freedom Walk Chicago |
from the Illinois Senate
State Senator Jacqueline Y. Collins
COURT DECISION AFFIRMS STATES' RIGHT TO DIVEST FROM SUDAN,
COLLINS PROMISES MINOR CHANGES TO LANDMARK LAW
SPRINGFIELD, IL--State Senator Jacqueline Y. Collins (D--Chicago), who sponsored the nation's first law requiring public divestment from Sudan, applauded the recent court decision that affirmed Illinois' right to divest from Sudan.
"The Court confirmed the State's right to disassociate from the reign of genocide and terrorism that has been killing and maiming thousands of our sisters and brothers in Sudan," said Collins, "And for that, we're very pleased."
"The Court has confirmed that State divestment from Sudan is not pre-empted by the federal government's authority to conduct foreign affairs. The Court has confirmed that corporations are not 'irreparably harmed' by divestment, and have no grounds to enjoin State divestment. The Court has confirmed that nothing prevents other States from following our lead."
"Hundreds of pension funds across the state have been divesting from Sudan in good faith. Taking into account the guidance that we've received from the Court, we will move quickly to promote the State goal of disassociating from genocide and terrorism."
As was demonstrated in court, there are 15,000 publicly-traded corporations in the world. Of that number, only about 140 are in Sudan. Thus, the vast majority of publicly-traded corporations (and mutual funds) are Sudan free. These facts notwithstanding, the judge did theorize that some of Illinois' local municipal pension funds would be "irreparably harmed," because they would have to divest from certain equities and certain mutual funds. However, as acknowledged by the court itself, this finding-of-fact has no bearing on the validity of State divestment. Rather, the Court's decision depends entirely on the conclusion that the State of Illinois is not required to "pay benefits if a municipal pension fund is underfunded or becomes insolvent." Based on these conclusions, the court questioned the validity of the Act, but only as it relates to local pension funds.
"We don't expect that this decision will have any adverse impact on the national Sudan divestment movement, which was launched in the public sector by the State of Illinois," said Senator Collins.
"A thorough review of the judge's decision tells me that we can address the judge's concerns with some minor technical changes to the Act, and we will be introducing legislation to that effect very soon."
# # #
State Senator Jacqueline Y. Collins
COURT DECISION AFFIRMS STATES' RIGHT TO DIVEST FROM SUDAN,
COLLINS PROMISES MINOR CHANGES TO LANDMARK LAW
SPRINGFIELD, IL--State Senator Jacqueline Y. Collins (D--Chicago), who sponsored the nation's first law requiring public divestment from Sudan, applauded the recent court decision that affirmed Illinois' right to divest from Sudan.
"The Court confirmed the State's right to disassociate from the reign of genocide and terrorism that has been killing and maiming thousands of our sisters and brothers in Sudan," said Collins, "And for that, we're very pleased."
"The Court has confirmed that State divestment from Sudan is not pre-empted by the federal government's authority to conduct foreign affairs. The Court has confirmed that corporations are not 'irreparably harmed' by divestment, and have no grounds to enjoin State divestment. The Court has confirmed that nothing prevents other States from following our lead."
"Hundreds of pension funds across the state have been divesting from Sudan in good faith. Taking into account the guidance that we've received from the Court, we will move quickly to promote the State goal of disassociating from genocide and terrorism."
As was demonstrated in court, there are 15,000 publicly-traded corporations in the world. Of that number, only about 140 are in Sudan. Thus, the vast majority of publicly-traded corporations (and mutual funds) are Sudan free. These facts notwithstanding, the judge did theorize that some of Illinois' local municipal pension funds would be "irreparably harmed," because they would have to divest from certain equities and certain mutual funds. However, as acknowledged by the court itself, this finding-of-fact has no bearing on the validity of State divestment. Rather, the Court's decision depends entirely on the conclusion that the State of Illinois is not required to "pay benefits if a municipal pension fund is underfunded or becomes insolvent." Based on these conclusions, the court questioned the validity of the Act, but only as it relates to local pension funds.
"We don't expect that this decision will have any adverse impact on the national Sudan divestment movement, which was launched in the public sector by the State of Illinois," said Senator Collins.
"A thorough review of the judge's decision tells me that we can address the judge's concerns with some minor technical changes to the Act, and we will be introducing legislation to that effect very soon."
# # #
Comments are closed for this post.