Parents of Illinois public school students have filed a lawsuit in an attempt to secure what they consider adequate funding for the coming school year.
A state appeals panel has refused to allow a state agency, under the supervision of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, to hire its own legal representation amid a conflict with Democratic Attorney General Lisa Madigan over legal strategy in defending against workers compensation claims brought by an independent personal assistant for those with disabilities who claimed she should be treated as a state employee after the state empowered a union to represent her.
Noting the contracts they signed made their payments contingent on the availability of legally appropriated state funds, an Illinois appellate court has found a coalition of social service providers have no legal or constitutional leg to stand on to demand the state pay them without first securing the proper appropriations from the state’s legislature and governor.
Amid the state of Illinois' sustained budget woes, school districts in Chicago and elsewhere in the state have lined up to ask courts to intervene on their behalf and order the state to pay what they assert is its proper share of education funding.
But history has indicated such lawsuits have limited chances of success.
After their first attempt to obtain a court order to compel a rewrite of the state's education funding rules was rebuffed, the Chicago Public Schools have renewed their legal challenge, again asking a Cook County judge to force changes in a school funding system they call discriminatory.
In the wake of a scathing report from a court-appointed “special master” empowered to investigate political hiring abuses under former Gov. Pat Quinn, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and other state officials and lawmakers, current Gov. Bruce Rauner has asked for the court’s guidance on whether those improperly hired, thanks to political connections, should now be able to use collective bargaining agreements to leverage the experience they gained in those positions to land in different positions or even move up in the state’s employment ranks.
Saying the demands sought by the Chicago Public Schools “would inject widespread chaos into the entirety of the State’s public education system,” a Cook County judge has denied the request by CPS and other plaintiffs to force the state to funnel more money into Chicago’s public education system, dismissing a lawsuit CPS said it brought to address systemic and illegal discrimination within the state of Illinois’ educational funding system.
Eighteen Illinois women’s health organizations have sued the state of Illinois and Gov. Bruce Rauner over a new law that forces pro-life doctors and pregnancy resource centers to discuss abortion benefits and to refer pregnant women for abortions despite the medical providers' opposition to the procedure.
The U.S. Supreme Court will get the chance to decide just how much public worker unions in Illinois and elsewhere can exact from non-union workers, after a federal appeals court in Chicago upheld a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit intended to challenge a longstanding legal precedent used by unions to justify the forcible collection of so-called “fair share” fees.
In the latest move in the ongoing battle between Illinois state union workers and Gov. Bruce Rauner, a state appeals court has refused the governor’s request to lift a court-ordered stay on the Illinois Labor Relations Board’s finding that the state and its largest union are at an impasse, a move that will impact the ability of Rauner to impose contract terms and of the union to strike.
A group of state human and social service agencies and companies filed suit today in St. Clair County against Gov. Bruce Rauner and other state officials to force timely payments for services performed.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan seeks to break a protracted budget stalemate by putting pressure on Gov. Bruce Rauner and legislators in St. Clair County Circuit Court.
In early December, Democrats and Republicans in Springfield, including Gov. Bruce Rauner, agreed on an energy bailout bill in the Legislature to keep two Exelon nuclear generator plants operating at a cost of as much as $4.54 per month per Illinois ratepayer. But a Chicago lawyer who has advised industrial businesses and governments on energy-related issues for more than two decades said the 503-page bailout bill, which rewrote major provisions of both the Illinois Public Utilities Act and the Illinois Power Agency Act, should have received a more thorough review before becoming law.
As the calendar flips to a new year, a host of new laws in Illinois and elsewhere will take effect, including a number of which employers should particularly be mindful.
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of a bill that would automatically register voters across Illinois has held up in the General Assembly, leaving unclear whether such a bill can secure enough votes to become law amid the current political environment.
More than two years into an investigation of hiring practices at the Illinois Department of Transportation, a federal judge has expanded the power of the review panel to cover all other state agencies under the oversight of Illinois' governor.
Three weeks since filing suit to ask a Cook County judge to order Illinois’ state government to pay their organizations what they believe they are owed, a coalition that has now grown to more than 80 Illinois social service agencies have decided the situation has now become a “public emergency across the state” requiring emergency action from the courts to order Springfield to cough up the money to allow the agencies to continue functioning.
An attorney connected to powerful Democratic Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan has filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court to block a referendum from landing on the ballot, which would ask Illinois voters to reform the way Illinois creates the legislative districts from which state lawmakers are elected.