First of all, I want to thank all of you for signing this petition. It really means a lot and I have some exciting news to share.
We believed and advocated that the best path for the Illinois State Bar Association would be to not force law students to choose between their livelihoods and their lives. In addition to our efforts, a group of aspiring lawyers filed a legal petition with the Illinois Supreme Court, with nearly 1,400 law school graduates, faculty members, lawyers, and health care workers fully supporting the effort, and they were denied without explanation from the Supreme Court.
The Chicago Tribune (1) and blog Book Club Chicago (2) ran stories about it both yesterday and as recent as 9AM this morning, respectively.
Due to growing publicity, the Illinois Supreme Court announced today that “due to continuing public health concerns raised by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Illinois in-person bar examination scheduled for September 9-10, 2020, has been canceled.”
In the span of a week, the Illinois Board of Admissions to the Bar went from protocols, "assuring" students that “if a test-taker displays symptoms during the exam, all test-takers will be dismissed temporarily so that the room can be sanitized as quickly as possible,” to offering a remote version of the exam on October 5-6, 2020.
Thank you to everyone who signed! 136 signatures may not seem like much compared to the 1,400 on the legal petition, but I believe this petition and petitions like it have demonstrated support beyond the legal profession. Support that the state of Illinois could no longer ignore. So a huge thank you to everyone involved, especially my brother who first brought this issue to my attention.