The DuPage County courthouse will no longer bear the name of the late U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde.
The DuPage County Board voted 10-5 at its Tuesday meeting to remove the Republican congressman’s name from the building and related offices in Wheaton.
While Democrats and Republicans voted along party lines on the issue, Democrats Lynn LaPlante, of Glen Ellyn, and Lucy Chang Evans, of Naperville, abstained from the vote and expressed disappointment that the matter was raised.
The courthouse will now be known as the DuPage County Judicial Office Facility.
“Here in DuPage County, public buildings serve all people, regardless of race, gender, faith or … economic status,” board Chair Deb Conroy, a Democrat from Elmhurst, said ahead the vote. “This resolution reinforces the notion that the buildings on this campus support the rights of all people to receive the services they need. I believe our actions should reflect our values.”
Hyde, a Wood Dale Republican and staunch abortion opponent, is the namesake of the Hyde Amendment, a law that took effect in 1980 banning the use of federal funds to pay for abortion in all cases other than rape, incest or to save the life of the woman giving birth.
The board’s resolution Tuesday was in “direct response to women who were marginalized (by) or reminded” of the Hyde Amendment “when they walked into the courthouse,” Conroy said.
Hyde represented parts of DuPage County in the House of Representatives from 1975 until 2007 and in the Illinois House for nearly a decade prior to that.
He died in 2007 at age 83. Three years after his death, the DuPage County Board — which at the time had a 15-3 Republican majority — voted to name its courthouse building at 505 N. County Farm Road in Wheaton the Henry J. Hyde Judicial Office Facility.
In a statement Tuesday, Democratic Party Chair of DuPage County Reid McCollum said the party backed the board’s action.
“The name Henry Hyde is synonymous with the Hyde Amendment, which restricts access to abortion care, especially for the most vulnerable women,” he said. “Removing his name from a courthouse will not restore the rights or assuage the fear of millions of women, but it’s the right thing to do.”
Hyde’s son, North Aurora resident Anthony Hyde, urged the board not to proceed with the name change.
Speaking in an interview after the vote, he said, “I think my dad was more than just a one-issue person. He did a lot of good for this county. … Today, the political winds have changed, and I just see this as kind of a cancel culture-type deal. I find it to be sad and disappointing that the board would take its time to remove someone’s name who didn’t do anything to deserve being canceled.
“The people who knew my dad know what he did and know he was a good man,” he said.
Several other friends and supporters of Hyde also beseeched the board to not move forward with the change.
Former DuPage County Circuit Court Clerk Chris Kachiroubas, a longtime friend, said Hyde “was so much more than the Hyde Amendment.”
Kachiroubas recalled meeting Hyde in 1977 and said that “the last time I saw him was about two weeks before he died in 2007.” Over those 30 years, he had a front row seat to Hyde’s career, he said.
“He would return to his district, while Congress was in session — with few exceptions — every weekend,” Kachiroubas said. “Henry never took his congressional seat for granted.”
Public comment totaled 30 minutes, the maximum amount allowed under board rules. A motion to extend the time by another half hour was rejected in a 10-8 vote, inciting pushback from several members.
“It’s really disappointing to me that we would not extend (public comment) another 30 minutes to let these people speak,” member Cindy Cronin Cahill, a Republican, said. “This is just not right. Why can’t you just listen to what everyone has to say?”
Other members, however, cited the large number of written comments submitted to the board prior to the meeting.
“This is a rough tally, but we heard from about 258 members of the public in our online public participation,” member Mary Ozog, a Democrat, said. “ And of those people, 78 people wanted to keep the name on the building. And 180 would like us to remove the name.”
Arguments on both sides of the aisle came back to concerns over taking partisan positions on county issues. Supporters charged that the name change was partisan to begin with while opponents said that raising the issue now was a political move.
Ozog said she believed the courthouse “should never have been named in the first place, named after anyone.”
Fellow Democrat Paula Deacon Garcia said, “I’ve had a lot of (conversations) with DuPage County constituents who feel strongly, as do I, that government buildings should not be named after political leaders. … This may be viewed as a partisan decision, and I’m sorry for that, but I actually view naming for a leader that some in the county view as a hero and some view as the opposite, was the partisan decision.”
James Zay, longtime Republican board member and former chairman of the DuPage County Republicans, said, “This is so narrowminded when you’re looking at a person’s career — 32 years in the United States Congress — that we’re looking at one issue.”
He called removing Hyde’s name “pure and simple (politics).”
Chang Evans, before abstaining, said she thought bringing the name change to a vote put the board “in a very awkward position.”
“I’m unapologetically pro-choice, and I’m a Democrat,” she said. “But I still think that taking the name down is not bringing value to the women that I serve. I mean, what’s it going to get us?”
LaPlante, ahead of her abstention, said she didn’t think “this is the right thing do,” noting that “we have so many other more urgent and bigger issues that we are facing right now, and I can’t believe that this is where we’re putting our time, our energy, our resources, our passions.”
The board’s decision comes in the wake of President Donald Trump issuing an executive order in January effectively reinforcing the Hyde Amendment and overturning two prior executive orders related to abortion that had been made by his predecessor, President Joe Biden.
“It is the policy of the United States, consistent with the Hyde Amendment, to end the forced use of Federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion,” the order read.
In an interview ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, Conroy insisted Trump’s recent action was not behind the timing of the name change.
The Chicago Tribune’s Bob Goldsborough contributed.
The DuPage County courthouse will no longer bear the name of the late U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde. The DuPage County Board voted 10-5 at its Tuesday meeting to remove the Republican congressman’s name from the building and related offices in Wheaton.
The DuPage County courthouse will no longer bear the name of the late U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde.
The DuPage County Board voted 10-5 at its Tuesday meeting to remove the Republican congressman’s name from the building and related offices in Wheaton.
While Democrats and Republicans voted along party lines on the issue, Democrats Lynn LaPlante, of Glen Ellyn, and Lucy Chang Evans, of Naperville, abstained from the vote and expressed disappointment that the matter was raised.
The courthouse will now be known as the DuPage County Judicial Office Facility.
“Here in DuPage County, public buildings serve all people, regardless of race, gender, faith or … economic status,” board Chair Deb Conroy, a Democrat from Elmhurst, said ahead the vote. “This resolution reinforces the notion that the buildings on this campus support the rights of all people to receive the services they need. I believe our actions should reflect our values.”
Hyde, a Wood Dale Republican and staunch abortion opponent, is the namesake of the Hyde Amendment, a law that took effect in 1980 banning the use of federal funds to pay for abortion in all cases other than rape, incest or to save the life of the woman giving birth.
The board’s resolution Tuesday was in “direct response to women who were marginalized (by) or reminded” of the Hyde Amendment “when they walked into the courthouse,” Conroy said.
Hyde represented parts of DuPage County in the House of Representatives from 1975 until 2007 and in the Illinois House for nearly a decade prior to that.
He died in 2007 at age 83. Three years after his death, the DuPage County Board — which at the time had a 15-3 Republican majority — voted to name its courthouse building at 505 N. County Farm Road in Wheaton the Henry J. Hyde Judicial Office Facility.
In a statement Tuesday, Democratic Party Chair of DuPage County Reid McCollum said the party backed the board’s action.
“The name Henry Hyde is synonymous with the Hyde Amendment, which restricts access to abortion care, especially for the most vulnerable women,” he said. “Removing his name from a courthouse will not restore the rights or assuage the fear of millions of women, but it’s the right thing to do.”
Hyde’s son, North Aurora resident Anthony Hyde, urged the board not to proceed with the name change.
Speaking in an interview after the vote, he said, “I think my dad was more than just a one-issue person. He did a lot of good for this county. … Today, the political winds have changed, and I just see this as kind of a cancel culture-type deal. I find it to be sad and disappointing that the board would take its time to remove someone’s name who didn’t do anything to deserve being canceled.
“The people who knew my dad know what he did and know he was a good man,” he said.
Several other friends and supporters of Hyde also beseeched the board to not move forward with the change.
Former DuPage County Circuit Court Clerk Chris Kachiroubas, a longtime friend, said Hyde “was so much more than the Hyde Amendment.”
Kachiroubas recalled meeting Hyde in 1977 and said that “the last time I saw him was about two weeks before he died in 2007.” Over those 30 years, he had a front row seat to Hyde’s career, he said.
“He would return to his district, while Congress was in session — with few exceptions — every weekend,” Kachiroubas said. “Henry never took his congressional seat for granted.”
Public comment totaled 30 minutes, the maximum amount allowed under board rules. A motion to extend the time by another half hour was rejected in a 10-8 vote, inciting pushback from several members.
“It’s really disappointing to me that we would not extend (public comment) another 30 minutes to let these people speak,” member Cindy Cronin Cahill, a Republican, said. “This is just not right. Why can’t you just listen to what everyone has to say?”
Other members, however, cited the large number of written comments submitted to the board prior to the meeting.
“This is a rough tally, but we heard from about 258 members of the public in our online public participation,” member Mary Ozog, a Democrat, said. “ And of those people, 78 people wanted to keep the name on the building. And 180 would like us to remove the name.”
Arguments on both sides of the aisle came back to concerns over taking partisan positions on county issues. Supporters charged that the name change was partisan to begin with while opponents said that raising the issue now was a political move.
Ozog said she believed the courthouse “should never have been named in the first place, named after anyone.”
Fellow Democrat Paula Deacon Garcia said, “I’ve had a lot of (conversations) with DuPage County constituents who feel strongly, as do I, that government buildings should not be named after political leaders. … This may be viewed as a partisan decision, and I’m sorry for that, but I actually view naming for a leader that some in the county view as a hero and some view as the opposite, was the partisan decision.”
James Zay, longtime Republican board member and former chairman of the DuPage County Republicans, said, “This is so narrowminded when you’re looking at a person’s career — 32 years in the United States Congress — that we’re looking at one issue.”
He called removing Hyde’s name “pure and simple (politics).”
Chang Evans, before abstaining, said she thought bringing the name change to a vote put the board “in a very awkward position.”
“I’m unapologetically pro-choice, and I’m a Democrat,” she said. “But I still think that taking the name down is not bringing value to the women that I serve. I mean, what’s it going to get us?”
LaPlante, ahead of her abstention, said she didn’t think “this is the right thing do,” noting that “we have so many other more urgent and bigger issues that we are facing right now, and I can’t believe that this is where we’re putting our time, our energy, our resources, our passions.”
The board’s decision comes in the wake of President Donald Trump issuing an executive order in January effectively reinforcing the Hyde Amendment and overturning two prior executive orders related to abortion that had been made by his predecessor, President Joe Biden.
“It is the policy of the United States, consistent with the Hyde Amendment, to end the forced use of Federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion,” the order read.
In an interview ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, Conroy insisted Trump’s recent action was not behind the timing of the name change.
The Chicago Tribune’s Bob Goldsborough contributed.
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