by Erin Kiernat Receiving a little more than 58% of the votes cast at the November 2022 general election, Illinois voters approved an amendment to the Illinois Constitution known as the Workers’ Rights Amendment. The Amendment holds that: Employees shall have the fundamental right to organize and to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing for the purpose of …

by Joe Miller and Hayley Loufek The United States Constitution requires a government to give a soon-to-be-ex-employee notice of their impending termination and a hearing beforehand. But what happens if the employee resigns instead? An Illinois Appellate Court recently made clear that such an employee cannot sue alleging that their due process rights were violated. In McElroy v. Oswego Fire …

by W. Anthony Andrews Recently, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals injected new life into Governor Pritzker’s COVID-19 vaccination mandates in ruling on three consolidated cases. Indeed, with its ruling in Troogstad v. City of Chicago, the Seventh Circuit has signaled COVID-19 vaccination challenges are either moot or substantively meritless. Each of the three cases share a similar fact pattern. …

by Maureen A. Lemon Historically, school districts have had to bid out food service contracts thanks to State bidding laws. However, Public Act 102-1101 recently amended the Illinois School Code’s bidding statute (105 ILCS 5/10-20.21) to exempt food service contracts from being automatically awarded to the lowest responsible bidder if certain conditions are met. The result is that, beginning June …

by John E. Motylinski In 2022, both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly approved 410 bills for signature into law. The majority of these do not impact local governments, but here is a roundup of a few new laws that do. New Committees for Studying Efficiency: In June 2022, Governor Pritzker signed the “Decennial Committees on Local Government Efficiency Act,” …

by Megan Lamb As COVID loosens its grip on society and the nation moves on to a new normal, courts have begun to grapple with lingering questions surrounding pandemic-related losses and liability. During the height of the pandemic, Governor Pritzker’s Executive Orders mandating mass closure of non-essential businesses meant a loss of income and stability for countless business owners. While …

by Carolyn Welch Clifford In the ongoing battle over the constitutionality of the consolidation of Article 3 and 4 pension fund assets, the parties have filed their briefs with the Second District Appellate Court. Background The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of P.A. 101-0610 (the “Consolidation Act”), which transferred investment functions of over 650 downstate police and firefighter pension funds to …

by John E. Motylinski In 2019, the Illinois General Assembly passed Public Act 101-0610, which required downstate police and firefighter local pension funds’ assets to be consolidated into statewide funds for investment purposes. In early 2021, a group of active and retired members of eighteen police and firefighters’ pension funds filed a lawsuit complaint against Governor Pritzker, the two new …