* Starting off with some Attorney General Kwame Raoul wins. Crain’s…

The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to take up a challenge to an Illinois law that prohibits the carrying of firearms on public transportation unless they are unloaded and secured.

The 2013 Firearm Concealed Carry Act was challenged by three residents of Cook, DuPage, and DeKalb counties who have concealed-carry permits and sought to have their loaded weapons for self-defense on the CTA and Metra. […]

In their appeal to the Supreme Court in Schoenthal v. Raoul, the challengers urged the justices to take up the case to better define “sensitive places” where the government may have greater rein to regulate guns. […]

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said there is no split among federal circuit courts on the question of gun regulations on public transit, with other courts uphold similar restrictions in New York state and Maryland.

* Last week…

Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced a federal appeals court rejected the federal government’s request to impose harmful restrictions on grant funding that will limit access to long-term housing and other services for tens of thousands of Americans experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity. […]

In November 2025, Raoul and a coalition of 20 attorneys general sued the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) after HUD abruptly changed its Continuum of Care program, the largest resource for federal homelessness assistance funding. HUD dramatically reduced the amount of grant funds that can be spent on permanent housing and put unlawful conditions on access to the funding.

U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy sided with the states in December 2025, and said HUD’s actions would cause irreparable harm to the plaintiffs and issued a preliminary injunction barring HUD from implementing the unlawful restrictions.

The appeals court rejected HUD’s request to temporarily allow the restrictions to go into effect, explaining that the states had established that if HUD moved ahead with its planned restrictions to the funding, the results would be “immediately destabilizing and disastrous for their constituents.”

In 2024, 19 regional continuums of care in Illinois received more than $182 million in federal funding to support programs to address homelessness across the state, including permanent supportive housing, rapid rehousing, transitional housing and a broad range of services. Illinois leverages this critical federal funding and matches it with significant state funding. In the last two years, Illinois has increased state funding to address and prevent homelessness by 154%.

* Press release…

Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) rescinded its unlawful policy capping reimbursement for state energy programs, preserving a multistate coalition’s victory in federal court and bringing the case to a close.

In August 2025, Attorney General Raoul and a coalition of states filed a lawsuit against the DOE over a new policy capping reimbursement for key administrative and staffing costs at 10% of a project’s total budget, threatening millions of dollars in funding for state energy programs and jeopardizing states’ ability to keep them running.

“The Department of Energy’s unlawful policy threatened work being done in Illinois and across the nation to improve energy efficiency, strengthen energy resiliency and increase clean energy,” Raoul said. “Improving energy efficiency by increasing clean energy is good for the environment, state economies and our workers. I am proud to have won this legal victory that protects these important efforts.”

* Moving on to some new lawsuits. The Sun-Times…

Illinois has joined 23 other states in filing a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s executive order that would restrict mail-in voting to a federal list of eligible voters.

The executive order, signed Tuesday, directs the Department of Homeland Security to work with states to compile a list of eligible voters, using citizenship records and identification data. The order mandates that the United States Postal Service only send mail-in ballots to registered voters on the DHS list, and threatens criminal prosecution and loss of federal funding to states and individuals who do not comply.

The lawsuit was filed in Massachusetts in partnership with 23 other Democrat-led states, who argue the constitution leaves the right to administer and oversee elections to states, not the federal government. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul contended the executive order will “disenfranchise voters” and cause “chaos” in elections.

“President Trump’s executive order is a blatantly unconstitutional attempt to undermine our elections and disenfranchise voters all across the country.” Raoul and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a joint statement earlier this week. “Mail-in voting has always been a secure way to vote, and for many, the only way they can vote. Make no mistake, his attempts to attack free and fair elections will fail because Democratic AGs will use every tool we have to continue to hold President Trump accountable when he violates the rule of law and attacks states’ rights.”

* WCIA…

Illinois’ Attorney General is filing another lawsuit against the Trump administration, this time over the repeal of air toxins and pollutants standards.

Kwame Raoul is one of 16 Democratic state Attorneys General who filed the lawsuit, alongside the Attorney General of the District of Columbia, the City of Chicago, the City of New York and Harris County, Texas. They are challenging the repeal of the 2024 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) Rule, which reverted standards to “outdated ones” that the coalition claims harm the environment.

Raoul explained that the MATS Rule implements nationwide standards that limit emissions of toxic air pollutants from coal- and oil-fired power plants, including mercury, arsenic, lead and other toxic metals, in addition to acid gases, such as hydrogen chloride and formaldehyde. In 2024, following significant developments in the technologies used to control pollution, the Environmental Protection Agency updated the standards for emissions of these hazardous air pollutants from power plants.

Last month, the Trump administration rolled back the updated standards, which Raoul said allows for more of these emissions to be released into the air.

* More…

* Press release | AG Raoul obtains injunction in lawsuit over 2025 asphalt spill impacting Chicago sanitary and ship canal: Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced an agreed preliminary injunction was entered in a lawsuit his office filed against Petroleum Fuel & Terminal Company (PFTC) after a February 2025 incident caused approximately 4,000 barrels of liquid asphalt to spill into the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. The preliminary injunction requires the defendant to complete cleanup of the canal and area surrounding its facility, located in suburban Forest View, Illinois. PFTC – owned by St. Louis-based Apex Oil Co. – has operated an oil terminal and storage facility at 4805 S. Harlem Ave. in Forest View since at least 1993. The facility sits in an industrial area next to the canal, a 32-mile waterway that connects the Chicago River to the Des Plaines River.

* Press release | AG Raoul leads coalition supporting law firms targeted for retribution by Trump Administration: Attorney General Kwame Raoul co-led a coalition of 21 attorneys general today in filing an amicus brief supporting law firms challenging unconstitutional executive orders that imposed severe sanctions on the firms in retaliation for doing work disfavored by the Trump administration. “Attacking attorneys based on who they represent, who they hire, or because their client may take a position that is not favored by the government threatens our First Amendment rights, right to counsel and the independence of law firms,” Raoul said. “I join my fellow attorneys general in asking the court to uphold the rulings blocking these orders. As our states’ top legal officers, we stand with all our colleagues in the legal community who stay true to the ideals and values of our profession.”

* WICS | Ex-Iroquois County health admin faces charges for $100k fake timesheet claims: Attorney General Kwame Raoul charged a former Iroquois County public health administrator with allegedly submitting fraudulent time sheets to the Iroquois County Public Health Board claiming to have worked hours she did not actually work, valued in excess of $100,000. Raoul’s office charged Dee Ann Schippert, 57, of Watseka, with two counts of theft of government property, Class X felonies punishable by up to 30 years in prison; six additional Class 1 felony counts of theft of government property, each punishable by up to 15 years in prison; eight counts of forgery, Class 3 felonies punishable by up to five years in prison; and 17 counts of official misconduct, Class 3 felonies each punishable by up to five years in prison.

* ABC Chicago | Illinois Attorney General warns privacy may be at risk due to loopholes with private data brokers: According to the Illinois Attorney General and digital privacy experts, the ability of the federal government to monitor intimate details of your private life has never been more powerful with the buying and selling of personal data now being analyzed with artificial intelligence. The AG, along with others, is now urging Congress to close loopholes they claim violate your personal privacy and the Fourth Amendment. […] It’s why Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said he and 16 other attorneys general are asking Congress to close loopholes allowing the federal government to buy bulk data on Americans without a judicial warrant. He said federal agencies have already purchased billions of records enabling them to track an individual’s movements, routines, and daily lives.