A Chicago judge has ruled the state's controversial eavesdropping law unconstitutional, the Chicago Tribune reports. The law makes it a felony offense to make audio recordings of police officers without their consent even when they're performing their public duties.
Judge Stanley Sacks found the eavesdropping law unconstitutional because it potentially criminalizes “wholly innocent conduct.” The decision was in the case of Christopher Drew, an artist who was arrested in 2009 for selling art on a without a permit. Drew was charged with a felony violation of the eavesdropping law after he used an audio recorder in his pocket to capture his conversations with police during his arrest.