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* Expected…
John Tillman formally files "APPEAL TO THE ILLINOIS FOURTH DISTRICT APPELLATE COURT FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF SANGAMON COUNTY" on the GO lawsuit ruling from judge last week denying petition to move forward with taxpayer action.
— yvette shields (@Yvette_BB) September 3, 2019
The appeal is here.
* Wirepoints on the trial court’s opinion…
Far more important, however, Davis seems unaware of the bedrock principle in American law – that courts have the power and duty to invalidate laws that conflict with the federal constitution or their state’s constitution. It’s not a court’s place to “substitute its judgement” for the legislature’s, he says.
Marbury vs Madison established in 1803 that courts should invalidate laws that violate the constitution. That’s a central tenet of separation of powers. Since then, federal and state courts have invalidated hundreds of statutes and administrative actions as unconstitutional. Illinois and all other states routinely do the same, testing their statutes against their state constitutions. Judge Davis, however, might as well have written, “Politicians decided to do this so it must be permitted.”
Courts assume laws are constitutional and proceed from there. Tillman claimed the Legislature skirted the “specific purposes” requirement, when it clearly did not. This is a taxpayer lawsuit, so he had some serious legal hurdles to overcome and the judge ruled his case did not overcome those hurdles.
* Back to Wirepoints…
Judge Davis ignored, among other things, the most interesting aspect of the case, which warrants a full, reasoned opinion. That’s the relevance of the balanced budget requirement in our state constitution, and it’s especially pertinent to the 2017 bonds. They were used simply to pay down part of Illinois’ huge bill backlog.
That backlog obviously results from budgets that weren’t balanced.
From the Illinois Constitution…
Appropriations for a fiscal year shall not exceed funds estimated by the General Assembly to be available during that year.
There are several loopholes here, among them: 1) It doesn’t say “expenditures,” it says “appropriations.” Things can happen after a budget is enacted; 2) There is no clear and specific mandatory requirement for a hard revenue estimate. Should they do that? Yep. But courts have yet to force their hands.
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Sep 3, 19 @ 11:42 am
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Must be nice to have enough money to throw good money after bad money.
Comment by RNUG Tuesday, Sep 3, 19 @ 11:46 am
== funds estimated by the General Assembly to be available during that year. ==
The GA can keep estimating they will. sell the JRT … until they actually sell it.
Comment by RNUG Tuesday, Sep 3, 19 @ 11:49 am
Losing his lawsuit and LABOR DAY.
Talk about a bad weekend for Tillman and WirePoints.
Comment by Michelle Flaherty Tuesday, Sep 3, 19 @ 11:53 am
If at first you don’t succeed in ruining the state, try, try, and try again. At least until your wealthy benefactors stop funding your crazy ideas.
Comment by Norseman Tuesday, Sep 3, 19 @ 11:55 am
DOA. Davis will be affirmed by the 4th. This is nonsense.
Comment by Eire17 Tuesday, Sep 3, 19 @ 11:58 am
When this appeal fails, will Tillman bring a suit to say that the entire Illinois Constitution is unconstitutional?
Comment by A Jack Tuesday, Sep 3, 19 @ 12:39 pm
The judge make quite clear the legal thoughts to his ruling.
I’m not seeing “the other side” that would overturn to ruling here.
Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Sep 3, 19 @ 12:41 pm
I’ll certainly be taking constitutional law lessons from Wirepoints. /s/
The lawsuit was a farce. The judge saw it was a farce and ruled accordingly.
Comment by Demoralized Tuesday, Sep 3, 19 @ 1:16 pm
“And that ain’t right.”
Comment by Keyrock Tuesday, Sep 3, 19 @ 2:15 pm
==There is no clear and specific mandatory requirement for a hard revenue estimate. Should they do that? Yep.==
Am I the only one here who feels that is already done by COGFA? A February revenue forecast will not be accurate in June - anyone remember the $400 million hole that opened up in Edgar’s first budget when April 1991 income tax receipts were less than projected? (It was filled by advancing the sales tax due date so FY 1992 had 13 Sales Tax deposit dates, prompting Steve Rauschenberger to run for office - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Rauschenberger#1992_Election .)
Comment by Anyone Remember Tuesday, Sep 3, 19 @ 2:22 pm