Constitution of Illinois

Court rules Evanston food truck case can move forward

03/12/2014
The Liberty Justice Center’s legal challenge to Evanston’s anti-competitive food-truck law took an important step forward this week, as Cook County Circuit Court Judge Jean Prendergast Rooney denied the city government’s motion to dismiss our lawsuit’s claims that the city’s law violates the due process and equal protection guarantees of the Illinois Constitution. The Liberty...

TAGS: Beavers Coffee + Donuts, food trucks

Taxpayers to foot big bill for pointless legislator pay stunt

01/13/2014
In July, Gov. Pat Quinn used his line-item veto power to suspend Illinois legislators’ salaries, pledging to withhold their paychecks until they solved the state’s pension crisis. This predictably provoked a lawsuit by House Speaker Mike Madigan, Senate President John Cullerton and other legislators. A Cook County Circuit Court judge then ruled in September that...

TAGS: lawmaker pay, Pat Quinn

Pension ‘fix’ has many problems, but the Pension Clause isn’t one

01/13/2014
In December 2013, Gov. Pat Quinn signed a pension “reform” bill with many serious flaws. For example, it: barely makes a dent in the state’s unfunded pension liability; guarantees pension funding at the expense of taxpayers and all other government services; creates a fake 401(k) plan; doesn’t means test cost-of-living adjustments, or COLAs; still allows state workers to retire much earlier...

TAGS: pension guarantee, pensions

Illinois has a dirty little secret buried in its tax history

By Benjamin VanMetre
01/02/2014
Illinois has a dirty little secret buried in its tax history – the first income tax approved in Illinois was a progressive tax. Fortunately, the progressive tax was ruled unconstitutional and was never implemented. But now the threat of a progressive tax hike is back again. Originally, Illinois didn’t have an income tax. When the...

TAGS: fair tax, flat tax, graduated income tax, income tax, progressive income tax, taxes

Illinois General Assembly ignores citizens on term limits

By Brian Costin
10/26/2013
“It is a safe bet that the General Assembly will never pass a bill limiting its own members’ ability to seek re-election.” – Christopher Mooney, University of Illinois Springfield professor, term-limits expert Overwhelmingly, Illinoisans support term limits. A recent poll showed 78.7 percent of Illinois voters support term limits. But good luck convincing Illinois legislators...

TAGS: term limits

As usual, politicians win, taxpayers lose in legislator pay lawsuit

09/28/2013
In July, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn used his line-item veto power to suspend legislators’ salaries, pledging to withhold legislators’ paychecks until they solved the state’s pension problem. But just Thursday, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Neil H. Cohen ruled that Quinn’s move was unconstitutional. Article IV, Section 11, of the Illinois Constitution prohibits any “changes” to...

TAGS: John Cullerton, lawmaker pay, Mike Madigan, Pat Quinn

Term-limits referendums are overwhelmingly successful

By Brian Costin
09/23/2013
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner is championing a term-limits referendum proposal to amend the Illinois Constitution. If the measure is successful, it would limit terms in the Illinois General Assembly to eight years. The proposal has three major hurdles to pass to become law. It must: Gather more than 300,000 signatures to appear on the ballot Survive...

One woman fought Bloomington’s taxi cartel and won

08/31/2013
Should a city government be allowed to stop someone from starting a business just to protect established companies from competition? Should a city official be allowed to deny someone a license to start a business just because the official doesn’t consider the new business “desirable”? Until this week, the city of Bloomington had a law...

Judge renames couple’s baby, needs First Amendment refresher

08/13/2013
We write a lot about the ridiculous things government officials in Illinois do, but make no mistake: officials in other states do plenty of outrageous stuff, too. In Tennessee, for example, there’s Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew. When two unmarried parents had a dispute over whose last name their child should take, Judge Ballew decided to...
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4 ways to break out of Illinois’ pension trap

Causes, costs, how to set the state free

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Diana Graham

Process for unionizing non-state workers raises red flags

By Paul Kersey
06/19/2014

CBS Chicago: Illinois’ highest-paid superintendent receives $400K per year to oversee 1,200 students

By Ted Dabrowski
05/02/2016