Bill Text: IL HR0904 | 2021-2022 | 102nd General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Mourns the death of former Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2022-11-15 - Resolution Adopted [HR0904 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2021-HR0904-Introduced.html

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HOUSE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, Future Attorney General Jim Ryan was born on
February 21, 1946; a native of Illinois, he was born in
Chicago; he moved to the suburb of Villa Park with his family;
and
WHEREAS, Growing up in the church, young Jim Ryan found a
series of mentors and inspirations in the DuPage County
educational institutions affiliated with the Order of Saint
Benedict; he attended Saint Procopius Academy, an all-boys
school at the time of his attendance, and then Saint Procopius
College; and
WHEREAS, With his home in Villa Park and his place of
schooling in Lisle, before his eyes, Jim Ryan could see how
DuPage County and the United States were growing and changing
in the 1950s and 1960s; throughout his life, he would be a
voice for ordered change and thoughtful continuity; and
WHEREAS, Graduating from college in 1968, Jim Ryan chose
the law for his life and began his studies at Chicago-Kent
College of Law; in 1971, he received his degree and passed the
bar exam, soon commencing work as a prosecutor within the
Office of the DuPage County State's Attorney; and

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WHEREAS, After experience as both a senior member of the
DuPage County State's Attorney's office and in private
practice, Jim Ryan sought the nomination of the Republican
Party for DuPage County State's Attorney in 1984 and was his
party's nominee in the general election; he became the chief
prosecutor in Illinois's second-most-populous county; and
WHEREAS, During Jim Ryan's legal leadership in DuPage
County, the population of the county grew from 658,835 in the
1980 United States Census to 781,666 in 1990, with further
growth towards 904,161 in 2000; this growth created new
opportunities and challenges, including the massive office
move associated with the opening of the new DuPage County
Government Center in 1990 on the outskirts of the county seat
of Wheaton; and
WHEREAS, As state's attorney, Jim Ryan won the praise of
his neighbors for the operations of his key office during this
time of growth and change, winning reelection in 1988 and
1992; also respected by his fellow state's attorneys, he was
chosen as president of the Illinois State's Attorneys
Association, thus becoming the chief voice in Springfield of
solutions to the challenges faced by professional prosecutors;
and
WHEREAS, With a tough-on-crime image derived from his ten

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years as DuPage County's lead prosecutor, Jim Ryan was
nominated by the Republicans in 1994 to be the Attorney
General of Illinois; when he won the statewide election in
November 1994, this switched control of the Attorney General's
Office between the two political parties; and
WHEREAS, Despite the partisan nature of politics, as
attorney general, Jim Ryan saw it as his mission to work
closely with prosecutors, law enforcement officials, and
leaders from all over Illinois, including his former fellow
state's attorney Richard M. Daley of Cook County, a Democrat,
who had become the mayor of Chicago; and
WHEREAS, One of the newest authorizations granted to the
Office of the Illinois Attorney General when Jim Ryan took
over in 1995 was the authorization to convene statewide grand
juries; the Statewide Grand Jury Act (1991) had raised serious
concerns among many county state's attorneys; and
WHEREAS, As an experienced former state's attorney
himself, with ties of friendship and acquaintanceship across
Illinois, Jim Ryan brokered the current system of written and
unwritten agreements that has made the Statewide Grand Jury
Bureau within the Office of the Attorney General a key element
in the Illinois prosecution of multi-county cases, especially
cases involving guns, drugs, or computers; and

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WHEREAS, By 1995, Illinois and its Medicaid system, paid
for by Illinois taxpayers, had incurred billions of dollars in
current and future healthcare billings for treatments provided
to Medicaid-eligible Illinois residents who had smoked
cigarettes and who had then developed cancer and other health
conditions related to smoking; and
WHEREAS, In November 1996, the State of Illinois, with Jim
Ryan in the lead in his capacity as attorney general, filed a
major lawsuit against the U.S. tobacco industry, including all
of the major firms that worked together at that time to
dominate the manufacture and supply of cigarettes; and
WHEREAS, This lawsuit required an unprecedented level of
interstate cooperation between the attorneys general of the
states that had filed lawsuits of this type; Jim Ryan and his
colleagues had to deploy full-time coordination teams to share
data and case-law information in order to create a united
front for their litigation; and
WHEREAS, Due in part to his own hard work and with the
active cooperation of many other attorneys general from across
the United States, Jim Ryan was able to reach and announce a
landmark settlement with the tobacco companies in 1998; the
agreement included a future cash flow for the plaintiff states

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derived from moneys taken in by suppliers of cigarettes; and
WHEREAS, Under this settlement, the industry also barred
itself, on a nationwide basis, from many forms of tobacco
advertising, including advertising featuring cartoons and
anthropomorphic mascots (Joe Camel) designed to attract
underage customers; and
WHEREAS, During the 24 years since the announcement of
this settlement, Illinois and its taxpayers have received
payments from the tobacco industry that now total $9.1
billion, money that has not had to be levied in taxes; and
WHEREAS, The Office of the Illinois Attorney General now
routinely contacts, talks to, communicates with, and
cooperates in a wide variety of policy activities and
litigation activities with other attorneys general in other
U.S. states; this pattern of interstate cooperation between
the chief lawyers of the separate states is another enduring
legacy of Jim Ryan and illustrates his commitment to
cooperation, change, and continuity; and
WHEREAS, After the announcement of the tobacco settlement,
Jim Ryan ran for re-election in 1998, winning in a landslide;
and

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WHEREAS, Urged by many across Illinois to run for Governor
of Illinois in 2002 upon the retirement of George Ryan, Jim
Ryan did so and was the Republican Party nominee;
unfortunately, the names of George Ryan and the Democratic
nominee for the same office, Rod Blagojevich, echoed louder in
the press and in the minds of voters than the honored name of
Jim Ryan; and
WHEREAS, After leaving the office of attorney general at
the end of 2002, Jim Ryan returned to his educational home, now
Benedictine University, as an instructor and teacher in
political science and in criminal justice; and
WHEREAS, In 2005, Jim Ryan and his friends established the
Center for Civic Leadership at Benedictine University as an
ongoing center of teaching and training for young adults,
inside and outside the Benedictine student body, in civil,
open dialogue across political boundaries; and
WHEREAS, In the years following 2003, Jim Ryan also
practiced law at Gardner, Carton & Douglas in Chicago and was
of counsel at Jim Ryan & Associates in Naperville; and
WHEREAS, Throughout his life as a lawyer, public official,
and teacher, Jim Ryan was sustained by the love of his family;
in 2022, this included his wife, Marie; his son, John, and

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John's wife, Stacie; his son, Jim, and Jim's wife, Jennifer;
his son, Matthew, and Matthew's wife, Melissa; and his
daughter, Amy Ryan; and many grandchildren; and
WHEREAS, Jim Ryan's life included the devastating losses
of his daughter Anne Marie "Annie" Ryan and his son Patrick J.
Ryan, whom he always loved; and
WHEREAS, On June 12, 2022, the life of former Attorney
General Jim Ryan came to an end in DuPage County, his home
county; in an hour of great partisanship, his legacy was
praised by leading Illinoisans from both sides of the
political aisle; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
we join in mourning the death of former Attorney General Jim
Ryan, an honored son of Illinois; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we remember the enduring contributions made
by Jim Ryan to the professional operations of the lead
public-sector attorneys of Illinois, states' attorneys, and
the Office of the Attorney General alike; and be it further
RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution should
be presented to the wife of Attorney General Jim Ryan, Annie

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Ryan.