By Sandy . . . The threat was made in June, but a federal lawsuit in the works brought a halt to the forced eviction of 20 men on the Illinois sexual offense registry. Now those same men less one, several of whom are also employees of Wayside Cross, have been served papers stating that they have until January 15 to voluntarily leave.

Adele Nichols and Mark Weinberg, Illinois attorneys who filed the original federal lawsuit, still represent the 19 Wayside Cross registrants. A lawsuit against Kane County challenging the way the measurements have been taken from a playground inside of McCarty Park to the ministry property is very probable, and the federal lawsuit may be resurrected as well. Additionally, the attorneys have requested an injunction staying enforcement of the eviction on January 15.

To a reporter of the Chicago Tribune, Ms. Nichols said, “This law is one of the most unjust laws in Illinois because people who are doing absolutely nothing wrong are suddenly told it’s a felony to remain where they are. There is no other law that works like that.”

No other law indeed, against no other classification except those with sexual crime convictions.

The burning question now is where are the hearts of those who would force men from their home, and some from home and employment, at Christmas time, into an Illinois winter. For most, the prospect is trying to survive on the streets, a reality that in no universe makes anyone safer – not society, not Aurora, and certainly not the men who have done “absolutely nothing wrong” but, if this proceeds as the county intends, will be punished in a most cruel and unusual way.