Government · Statewide · IL · September 10, 2026
Illinois Judge Weighs Blocking State's Assisted Suicide Law
What Alinsky tactic is being used
2 of the thirteen rules are in play here — campaigns rarely run just one.
Rule 4
“Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”
Illinois already declares in its Health Care Right of Conscience Act (745 ILCS 70/2) that it is state policy to protect anyone who refuses to deliver care contrary to conscience — and then the End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act requires objecting professionals to refer a patient to a willing provider rather than simply opting out. The plaintiffs' whole case is built on that gap in the state's own book of rules, which is why the Aug. 21, 2026 order bars using noncompliance as a basis for licensure discipline. The tactic works here because the gap is genuinely there.
Counter-Rule 4 · Radical Integrity
Close the gap between stated values and actual practice before anyone else finds it. This tactic only works where the gap is real.
The same rule cuts both ways, so close your own gap this month. If your church runs a nursing home, school clinic, or benevolence fund, read 745 ILCS 70 and check that your conscience convictions are actually written into the mission statement, ethical guidelines, or bylaws the Act refers to — a facility that has never documented its position is the one with no record to stand on. Ask your board for the document number and the date it was adopted, and get it minuted.
Rule 10
“The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.”
This was not one vote but years of steady pressure: SB 3499 died in a Senate end-of-life subcommittee in 2024, HB 601 and SB 948 did not advance, and the measure finally passed as an amendment to SB 1950 with the Senate concurring 30-27 in the closing hours of the October 2025 veto session, the House having passed it 63-42-2. Attrition, not persuasion, carried it; opponents had to win every session, proponents only one.
Counter-Rule 10 · The Long Game
Plan in decades against a campaign built on attrition. Succession and endurance beat any single victory.
Plan on the same timescale. Name one person in your congregation to watch the Illinois General Assembly bill-status pages each session, record the bill numbers and committee assignments in a shared file, and hand that file to a successor rather than letting it die with one volunteer's enthusiasm. Ask your state senator's office to add you to their bill-notice list now, in a quiet month, not in the last week of a veto session.
Chapter 3 sets out the rules; Chapter 15 answers each of them in turn. This is that pairing applied to this story.
Know where you stand
The free 4-minute assessment identifies your mountain and your institution’s capture phase — so alerts like this one arrive matched to where you actually stand.
Facing this yourself? Ask. Describe what is happening and get what the book, Scripture, and the law of your state say, with the exact words to use. Your first one is free.