Illinois General Assembly
State Government: Elected Officials | State Legislative Bodies
Recent News About Illinois General Assembly
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IL Dems ask to be cut from sex harassment suit from woman who claims Madigan, others didn't protect her
Asking a federal judge to dismiss it from a lawsuit brought by a former campaign worker against several political organizations connected to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, the Democratic Party of Illinois said it isn't liable for sexual harassment the woman said she suffered at the hands of a Madigan aide. -
IL Supreme Court: Clerks can't slap on extra fines, but defendants can't appeal, must sue instead
The justices of the Illinois Supreme Court agreed court clerks lack the legal authority to tack on supposedly mandatory fines to judgments entered against defendants, when no judge ever ordered the defendants to pay the fines. However, the court divided sharply over what recourse defendants can use to stop clerks from collecting the fines, nonetheless. -
IL Supreme Court: Government can't use change in law to deny info requests filed before law changed
The Illinois Supreme Court has overruled lower court judges who had decided an Illinois state agency could wait until after a law is changed to use the change in the law to deny a public information request submitted before the law changed. -
Illinois Supreme Court: Man's procedural misstep dooms challenge to 'unconstitutional' IL estate tax
A man who claimed the state wrongly used a new state law to collect more than $400,000 in taxes on the estate of his mother, who died four days before the tax law took effect, can’t pursue his claims against the state, because he filed in the wrong court, the Illinois Supreme Court has ruled. -
Illinois legislature mulling changes to limit scope of state’s biometric information privacy law
The Illinois legislature is considering a bill that could limit the avenues to litigation now being pursued in a wave of class actions against businesses and employers of all sizes under the state’s biometric information privacy law, for such things as scanning employee fingerprints for use in employee punch clock timekeeping systems. -
Fair Maps Amendment not called for vote, deadline passes to place it on November 2018 ballot
Illinois voters will not get a chance to weigh in on the question of whether Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and other legislative leaders in the Democratic-controlled Illinois General Assembly should continue to hold the keys to drawing the state's legislative district maps, after the leaders of the state House and Senate refused to call a vote for a constitutional amendment designed to curtail their influence over the process. -
Converting Values: Condo owners on wrong end of deconversions lament lack of legal protections
Throughout the Chicago area, real estate investors are using condo deconversions to scoop up condo buildings in the city and suburbs to feed the continued strong market demand for rental apartments. But for those caught on the wrong end of the process, proscribed by a state law process some compare to eminent domain, few options are at their disposal other than to fight for the value of their unit in court. -
Court weighs if IL home rule powers allowing stricter employer rules also can extend to local right-to-work
A federal appeals panel is mulling over the thorny issue of whether Illinois "home rule" municipalities, already empowered to impose a host of labor and employment-related regulations on businesses, should also be allowed to buck the state government and create local right-to-work zones within their boundaries. -
Attorney 'would hope' Illinois General Assembly addresses privacy implications of AG's FOIA opinion
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's recent opinion that the names of state residents are not private in Freedom of Information Act requests raises identity theft concerns, a local government attorney says. -
Appeals court: Chicagoans don't have constitutional right to school board elections
Chicago residents could have the right to vote in a school board election. But under Illinois’ state constitution, Chicago residents do not necessarily have the right to a school board election, a state appeals court has ruled. -
Report: Asbestos litigation declines nationwide, slightly in Cook Co., still pervasive in three IL counties
As the number of new asbestos lawsuits declined nationally, activity in Illinois’ three hotbeds for asbestos litigation showed few signs of ebbing in 2017, even though the distribution of filing activity has shifted slightly. -
Employer groups ask Rauner to veto Dem-backed bill to transfer enforcement powers from Labor Dept to A/G
A prominent Democratic Illinois state lawmaker, who is now seeking his party's nomination as the state's next attorney general, has lined up behind new legislation intended to give the attorney general new powers to pursue businesses embroiled in wage disputes - new powers that will come at the expense of the state's Labor Department, according to business groups. -
Petition: Change IL conduct rules to let state regulators discipline lawyer/lawmakers like Silverstein accused of harassment
In the wake of a decision by Illinois legal profession regulators to not take action against state Sen. Ira Silverstein, who was accused of sexual harassment and who was found by the Illinois Legislative Inspector General to have engaged in behavior “unbecoming of a legislator,” a Chicago law firm has launched a petition drive, asking the Illinois Supreme Court to change Illinois lawyer conduct rules to specifically allow the state to take action against lawyers, including state lawmakers, accused of sexual harassment. -
'It's more possible now' - Penn Supreme Court ruling could open gerrymander reform avenue in IL, via courts
A recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling on the question of partisan gerrymandering could introduce a new avenue for reformers to pursue in breaking the hammerlock on the legislative redistricting process currently held by legislative leaders in the Illinois General Assembly, and other states. -
'Public should control process:' Anti-gerrymandering amendment filed in Springfield
As Illinois courts have repeatedly slapped aside attempts by Illinois voters to wrest control of drawing new legislative district maps from which ever partisans control the Illinois General Assembly, the coalition behind many of those past efforts to place referenda on the Illinois ballot to change the state constitution are now backing a new amendment to combat partisan gerrymandering, with the fight this time beginning in the state legislature. -
Class action: IL Treasurer Frerichs mishandling administration of 529 college savings plans
A Lake County resident has sued Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs, accusing him of mishandling the state’s college savings plans and improperly assessing fees on participants. -
IL appeals court upholds dismissal of class action challenging Chicago red light camera program law
Saying state law designates Chicago’s red light and speed camera enforcement programs as something different from ordinary traffic laws, a state appeals court has again handed a defeat to a class action attempting to overthrow the city’s automated traffic citation program, which annually adds millions of dollars in fines from ticketed motorists to the city’s coffers. -
Cook County judge: Chicago alderman's personal emails, texts generally not subject to FOIA
Emails and text messages sent and received by Chicago aldermen on their personal accounts and devices generally may not be subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, a Cook County judge has ruled, partially thwarting an attempt by Chicago lawyer Ameer Ahmad to uncover what he believed were efforts by his neighbors to use connections to Chicago Alderman Joe Moreno to allegedly improperly block Ahmad from obtaining a permit for a home improvement project. -
Berrios lawsuit: Cook County ethics ordinance illegally limits his campaign cash, imposes fines
Cook County Assessor and chairman of the county's Democratic Party Joe Berrios has sued the Cook County Board over campaign donation limits. -
Illinois law reducing LLC fees will help make Prairie State a bit more business friendly, attorney says
A woman is suing Union Medical Center, Cityscape Landscape LLC, Beef-Boners Union and Chicago Title Land Trust Company for allegedly taking insufficient measures to prevent injuries. And that's good for small businesses and the entire state, a local attorney says.