As faith leaders and directly affected Illinoisans, we believe in the sacred right of every person to work, provide for their family and live with dignity. In religious terms, we would say that we each have an obligation to ensure every able individual the opportunity to work and provide for their household. In the American lexicon, we would argue that every citizen has the right to a decent job at a living wage.
Work is not a privilege — it’s a right. And right now is the time to ensure that every citizen in the state of Illinois has the right to work.
The Illinois General Assembly is in the middle of its veto session. The Clean Slate Act, a bipartisan act that passed the Illinois House earlier this year, didn’t make it to the Senate floor before the spring session ended and therefore didn’t make its way to Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk to be signed into law. In the final days of the veto session this week, we call upon the Illinois Senate — and especially state Sen. Elgie Sims, chief sponsor of this bill — to overcome obstructions to this needed legislation and get the Clean Slate Act passed.
If the measure is enacted, Illinois would become the 13th state in the nation to pass clean slate legislation — automatically sealing eligible criminal records and giving people who’ve already paid their debt to society a fair chance to rejoin the workforce.
The Clean Slate Act is fundamentally a right-to-work bill — not in the political sense that it undermines unions but in the moral sense that it affirms a person’s right to earn an honest living. Too many of our neighbors are locked out of opportunity because of old records that have nothing to do with who they are today. People who have already completed their sentences are still being sentenced to unemployment, homelessness and hopelessness.
Nationally, the current administration has made massive cuts to health care, housing subsidies and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits — forcing families to struggle even harder to make ends meet. When government safety nets shrink, it becomes even more critical that states such as Illinois expand access to living-wage work. The Clean Slate Act would do just that — unlocking doors to jobs, housing and education for thousands of Illinois residents.
This legislation would not erase accountability. Sealing is not expungement: Law enforcement would still have access to records. But the act’s removal of barriers would prevent employers and housing providers from discriminating against those who have turned their lives around.
Last session, state Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth led this bipartisan bill through the House with overwhelming support. But political will in the Senate has stalled. We are concerned the the matter here is not one of right and wrong but of petty politics. We know from our coalition efforts that the votes are there in the Senate to ensure the bill’s passage.
We urge Sims to overcome any political stalemate and to lead the effort to pass this bill this very week. A failure to do so would be just that: a complete moral failure of leadership and representation. We urge our legislators to recognize that passage of the Clean State Act is not just policy but also a matter of moral principle and economic justice. Every person has the right to work, feed their family and live with dignity. Illinois cannot claim to be a state of second chances while denying people the basic right to make a living.
Our faith teaches that work itself is holy — that the divine honors labor and calls us to build systems in which every person has the chance to thrive. We see the harm of permanent punishment every day: parents turned away from housing, job seekers rejected for decades-old records, families caught in cycles of poverty that policy could break.
The Clean Slate Act is about more than redemption — it’s about restoring the right to work and the freedom to live.
We say to Sims and other members of the Illinois Senate: The moral and economic case is clear. Pass the Clean Slate Act now. Illinois families are ready to work.
It’s time to open the doors.
Chicago faith leaders Rabbi Seth Limmer, the Rev. Otis Moss III, the Rev. Ciera Bates-Chamberlain and the Rev. Michael Pfleger joined the Tribune’s opinion section in summer 2022 for a series of columns on potential solutions to Chicago’s chronic gun violence problem. The column continues on an occasional basis.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
