Summary
The Illinois Supreme Court affirmed the circuit court’s judgment invalidating a proposed redistricting constitutional amendment for exceeding the scope of ballot initiatives permitted under article XIV, section 3, of the Illinois Constitution. The court addressed the initiative’s restructuring of legislative redistricting and related changes affecting other constitutional provisions. The appeal was transferred directly to the Supreme Court for prompt resolution before the 2016 general election.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the proposed redistricting amendment exceeded the scope of ballot initiatives permitted by article XIV, section 3, of the Illinois Constitution because it assigned new duties to the Auditor General, whose office is governed by article VIII.
- Whether the circuit court properly granted plaintiffs judgment on the pleadings.
- Whether the proposed amendment violated the Illinois Constitution's free-and-equal-elections provision by combining separate and unrelated questions in one ballot proposition.
Holdings
- The proposed initiative was invalid because it assigned the Auditor General substantial new duties concerning applicant screening and commissioner selection, although the Auditor General's office and duties are subjects of article VIII rather than article IV. Those changes exceeded article XIV, section 3's limitation of ballot initiatives to structural and procedural subjects contained in article IV.
- Judgment on the pleadings was proper because no genuine issue of material fact existed and the plaintiffs were entitled to judgment as a matter of law on the constitutional defect.
Key quotations
“The Framers of the 1970 Illinois Constitution intended article XIV, section 3, to be a very limited form of constitutional initiative.” (¶ 23)
“Therefore, the duties of the Auditor General have never been and are not now a “subject contained in Article IV” as currently constituted.” (¶ 42)
“We conclude that the duties assigned to the Auditor General by the ballot initiative at issue in this case do not comport with the strict limitations in article XIV, section 3.” (¶ 44)
Factual background
Support Independent Maps submitted a petition proposing to replace Illinois's existing legislative and representative redistricting system with an independent redistricting commission. The proposed amendment assigned the Auditor General responsibility for screening applicants and selecting reviewers and commissioners, altered other governmental responsibilities, and changed the Supreme Court's redistricting jurisdiction. The State Board of Elections determined that the petition contained more than the required number of valid signatures, after which taxpayers challenged the proposal's constitutionality before it could be placed on the November 2016 ballot.
Procedural history
People's Map, John Hooker, and other Illinois taxpayers filed a taxpayer action in the Circuit Court of Cook County seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to prevent public funds from being used to evaluate or place Support Independent Maps' redistricting initiative on the ballot. Support Independent Maps intervened. The circuit court granted plaintiffs judgment on the pleadings on counts I through VII, finding the proposed constitutional amendment invalid, and denied Support Independent Maps' cross-motion. The Illinois Supreme Court accepted direct review and affirmed.