Saying to find otherwise would create “catastrophic” consequences for labor law in Illinois and across the country, a federal appeals panel has backed a federal judge’s decision to toss an attempt by a northwest suburban village to use its home rule powers to create a local right-to-work zone within its borders.
Brushing aside assertions the law allows party leaders to consolidate power statewide, a federal appeals panel has upheld an Illinois campaign finance law which restricts what individual donors can give to political campaigns, while allowing unlimited contributions from legislative caucus committees controlled by partisan leaders within the state's House and Senate.
Saying governments are different from labor unions and other private organizations, a north suburban village and an organization that lobbies on behalf of Illinois city and village governments has asked a federal judge to dismiss a union-backed lawsuit asserting the rights of union members are violated by local governments which use tax money to fund lobbyists to seek reforms opposed by unions.
Compelling non-union government workers to pay so-called “fair share fees” to unions they do not wish to join violates the First Amendment speech rights of non-union workers and is unconstitutional, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled, finding in favor of an Illinois state worker who had sued to end the fees, also known as agency fees, in Illinois and across the country.
Saying he believes Illinois law gives the city of Chicago the power to slap a 9 percent tax on people who pay to use Netflix, Spotify, Xbox Live and other streaming services, a Cook County judge has said plaintiffs need to pull the plug on a challenge to Chicago’s so-called “cloud tax.” Plaintiffs, however, said they intend to appeal, because the decision has more far-reaching implications for the ability of revenue-hungry Illinois governments to impose similar taxes throughout the state.
A federal judge has ordered the city of Burbank to pay a church and its lawyers $410,000 for settling a complaint alleging it blocked the congregation from opening a new building in a certain zoning district.
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.
Whether the Chicago suburb of Lincolnshire can designate itself as a “right-to-work” community may come down to the question of whether, under Illinois’ home rule provisions, home rule communities, like Lincolnshire, can qualify as “the state” under federal labor laws.
As the U.S. Supreme Court prepared to hear arguments on the question of whether state rules requiring non-union workers pay fees to unions violate the Constitution, a union member in suburban Lincolnshire has sued his village government, demanding the court declare the rights of union members have been similarly violated by local governments which use taxpayer money to fund lobbyists to seek reforms opposed by unions.
A group of nine Republicans currently serving in the Illinois General Assembly, including two rookie state lawmakers, have signed their names to a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the court to uphold the state’s ability to allow unions to extract fees from government employees who don’t wish to join a union, arguing the country’s founding federalist principles should allow the 50 states to decide such policy questions for themselves.
The woman who briefly served as one of the heads of Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner's communications team is suing his office, demanding the release of emails relating to controversial abortion legislation and other politically-charged topics.
The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a group of Illinois child care providers and in-home care assistants for those with disabilities the chance to argue their constitutional rights were violated by an Illinois state law forcing the care providers to accept the Service Employees International Union as their bargaining representative.
Sweeping changes in how unions collect dues and fees can be expected soon, now that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear a case against Illinois' largest public sector employee union, two labor attorneys said during a recent interview. And such a decision also could have significant ramifications for the nation's politics.
The U.S. Supreme Court will again wade into the question of whether public sector worker unions can force government employees who don’t wish to join their union to still pay fees, ostensibly for collective bargaining representation, after the court on Sept. 28 agreed to hear arguments in the case of Janus v AFSCME.
Minneapolis-based tech firm Vugo, which provides interactive video advertising to be displayed in Uber and Lyft vehicles, has received a green light to continue its legal challenge against a Chicago city ordinance barring such advertising in the vehicles, as a federal judge said she wasn’t sure she was buying the city’s assertions the ad ban was needed to protect “captive” passengers.
A group of Illinois child care providers and in-home care providers for those with disabilities have asked the nation’s highest court to step in to their dispute with a prominent labor union, arguing the state’s decision to force the care providers to allow the Service Employees International Union to serve as their bargaining representative as a condition of accepting payment through state assistance programs violates their constitutional rights.
An association representing some of the biggest names in video and computer games have sued the city of Chicago, asking a judge to determine the city’s 9 percent "Cloud Tax" can’t be applied to their online streaming video game products.
As Illinois’ financial, political and legal troubles continue to mount, a new book, issued by one of the state’s leading voices for reform, suggests the questions facing the state can largely be answered by amending the state’s constitution.
