Yesterday's Illinois Appellate Court decision in McClellan v. Hull, written by Justice Sharon Oden Johnson, joined by Justices Michael Hyman and Carl A. Walker reverses the order (which had been issued by Judge Debra A. Seaton), though without reaching the First Amendment question.
The quick factual backstory: McClellan and Hull met on Facebook, and then met twice in person and had sex on the second time. McClellan says it was consensual, Hull says that McClellan raped her. Four weeks after that, in April 2021, Hull Tweeted "that she was raped by him, he was a predator, she wanted justice for herself and sought to warn others of his sick nature" (McClellan's paraphrase).
McClellan claimed that this was "harassment" that entitled him to an Emergency Order of Protection under the Domestic Violence Act, and the court agreed. The court issued the Emergency Order, which "ordered Hull to have no contact by any means with McClellan." The Emergency Order was extended several times and then replaced by a longer-term Order of Protection. And at one of the hearings,
