[3] The governor called the General Assembly into special session 26 times, the most in Illinois history.

[5] The General Assembly passed the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) unanimously in 2008.

[6] BIPA imposes strict requirements on companies that do business in Illinois and also collect or store biometric information.

[10] The General Assembly also passed the Smoke Free Illinois Act (410 ILCS 82), a comprehensive anti-smoking law.

[11] Near the end of the 95th General Assembly, on December 9, 2008, Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested by federal agents and charged with conspiracy and soliciting bribes.

[13] On December 15, six days after the scandal broke with no resignation by the Governor, the Illinois House voted unanimously 113–0 to begin impeachment proceedings.

House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie chaired the Special Committee on Impeachment.

[19][20] Madigan stated that the impeachment committee would consider the pending criminal charges as well as review other possible wrongdoing during Blagojevich's term such as abuse of power, taking action without legal authority, ignoring state laws, and defying lawful requests for information from the General Assembly.

[19] Currie further stated that among the controversial actions under review by the committee would be the Blagojevich administration's purchase of a flu vaccine that was never distributed and his unilateral decision to send a $1 million grant to a private school that was damaged when the historic Pilgrim Baptist Church was destroyed by fire.

[21] On December 30, Fitzgerald filed a motion to allow the impeachment committee to hear the conversations recorded by wiretap during his federal investigation.