* Cook County Record…
Parents do not have legal rights to sue teachers unions for calling illegal strikes, which allegedly lead to learning loss and other economic and societal harms, an Illinois state appeals court has ruled.
And the appeals court said the unions may also be allowed to turn around and demand payment from the parents who sued them for allegedly attempting to use the courts to punish unions for their “speech” publicly defending their allegedly illegal labor actions.
On July 8, a three-justice panel of the Illinois First District Appellate Court upheld a Cook County judge’s decision tossing a lawsuit brought against the Chicago Teachers Union by parents of Chicago schoolchildren over the CTU’s attempt to thwart Chicago Public Schools’ efforts to reopen schools following the Covid pandemic in late 2021 and early 2022.
The parents had filed that lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court in 2024, seeking up to $250 million from the union for allegedly causing learning loss, income loss and general headaches for CPS students and families when the union executed a labor action to protest CPS’ return to full-time, in-school learning.
The lawsuit accused the CTU, as well as former CTU President Jesse Sharkey, current CTU President Stacy Davis Gates, and the American Federation of Teachers, of allegedly conspiring to engage in the labor action, which the lawsuit called an illegal strike, because the CTU asserted CPS did not do enough to protect them from the spread of Covid during that time.
The plaintiffs have been represented in the action by attorneys Patrick Hughes and Daniel Suhr, of the firm of Hughes & Suhr LLC, of Chicago.
Patrick Hughes was the attorney in the Illinois Policy Institute’s attorney who handled the successful Janus v. AFSCME lawsuit, which gutted the rights of public employee unions.
Amy Kessem is one of the plaintiffs. She’s the former 41st Ward Republican Committeeperson who has been affiliated with numerous far-right groups.
The opinion is here.
* The bottom line is that Kessem and other plaintiffs might now be on the hook for the teachers’ union legal fees, possibly including the costs of appeal…
In their ruling, however, the justices said Kubasiak’s ruling contained one error. They said the judge improperly refused to hold a hearing on whether the American Federation of Teachers should have been allowed to potentially countersue the parents for suing them at all.
That claim rested on Illinois’ law forbidding so-called Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, or SLAPPs. The AFT essentially asked the judge to determine if the parents’ lawsuit amounted to an illegal SLAPP action intended to punish the AFT for speaking out in support of the CTU’s demands to be allowed to continue to stay home and avoid teaching students in person until such time as the teachers’ union agreed the danger of Covid had sufficiently passed.
In their ruling, the appellate justices agreed Kubasiak should yet hold further proceedings on that question.
Should the AFT prevail, the parents and potentially their counsel could be forced to pay the unions’ legal fees in the case.
Oops.
* From the opinion…
Based on our interpretation of these statutory provisions, we conclude that when AFT filed its anti-SLAPP motion, the trial court was required to hold a hearing on the motion and render a decision thereon “within 90 days after notice of the motion is given to the respondent.” The trial court failed to do so. Therefore, we remand the anti-SLAPP motion to the trial court for a hearing and decision.
Oops.
- 88bucks - Wednesday, Jul 15, 26 @ 9:02 am:
Say what you will about how school closings and reopenings were handled during the pandemic - and there is plenty to say - a lawsuit always seemed like a reach. That said, Janus “gutted the rights of public employee unions”? Last I checked, those unions seem to have adjusted and are doing fine.
- Original Rambler - Wednesday, Jul 15, 26 @ 9:33 am:
I lost my respect for Ald. Napolitano when he endorsed Kessem over Martwick. This is one of the few times I hope the teacher’s union prevails.
- Steve - Wednesday, Jul 15, 26 @ 10:01 am:
It’s for the children.
- Sue - Wednesday, Jul 15, 26 @ 10:03 am:
Good luck- absent a statute prevailing parties are not entitled to recoup attorney’s fees- costs maybe but under the American system parties pay their own legal fees
- DS - Wednesday, Jul 15, 26 @ 10:19 am:
@ Sue
The anti-SLAAP statute mandates attorneys fees and costs to a party who wins a motion bright under the statute. 735 ILCS 110/25 for the curious. Reading is fundamental.
- Jerry - Wednesday, Jul 15, 26 @ 10:48 am:
Its not “Public Employee Unions”….its Teachers Unions. In Wisconsin, for instance, Walker was too chicken to go after the Police and Firefighter unions..just the teachers.
- Big Dipper - Wednesday, Jul 15, 26 @ 10:50 am:
Kessem was appointed by the Trump administration to a position at the Department of Labor a few months ago. Maybe his litigation success is contagious.
- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Wednesday, Jul 15, 26 @ 11:30 am:
“Reading is fundamental”
Not to Sue. In her world Tuesdays come in twos, not once a week.
To the story, good. If you still haven’t caught on that the number one hustle in destroying the middle-class is decimation of union membership, you’re still a rube.
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Jul 15, 26 @ 11:52 am:
=Parents do not have legal rights to sue teachers unions for calling illegal strikes, which allegedly lead to learning loss and other economic and societal harms, an Illinois state appeals court has ruled.=
If parents wewre allowed to sue, we would then be allowed to sue them for being lowsy parents and costing the schools untold billions to remediate their wrongs.
I remember when conservatives hated “trial attorneys”, I wonder what changed? Lol.
=Good luck- absent a statute prevailing parties are not entitled to recoup attorney’s fees- costs maybe but under the American system parties pay their own legal fees=
Apparently, you do not practice special education law.
- Larry Bowa Jr. - Wednesday, Jul 15, 26 @ 12:18 pm:
Trying to use a “public nuisance” argument to sidestep the exclusive jurisdiction of the an employment law statute is an insane thing for a police officer to attempt.
Although I don’t think plaintiffs spent as much as a single minute thinking through the potential downside outcomes for their fellow members if they had prevailed here.
- Leslie K - Wednesday, Jul 15, 26 @ 12:23 pm:
Based on the opinion, it certainly seems there is no rational way Kessem and Roth (or their attorney) could have thought they might possibly win. Lack of jurisdiction and standing alone sound clear cut. Seems like they might indeed have to worry about the SLAPP hearing.
- Paul Powell - Wednesday, Jul 15, 26 @ 1:04 pm:
The parents suing for penalties for an illegal strike are affiliated with the “far right” but no ideological label is applied to Jesse Sharkey AFT and CTU.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Jul 15, 26 @ 1:07 pm:
===but no ideological label is applied to Jesse Sharkey AFT and CTU. ===
OH NOOOOOOOOOO!
Seriously, people already know about the CTU. They may not know these smaller players who are *the subject of the post*
Some people will just totally wilt at even perceived slights.
- btowntruth from forgottonia - Wednesday, Jul 15, 26 @ 1:23 pm:
Rich,
Paul decided the “well,what about” deflection tactic was the way to go.
Standard MAGA tactic,almost an art form in my end of Forgottonia.
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Jul 15, 26 @ 1:44 pm:
=but no ideological label is applied to Jesse Sharkey AFT and CTU.=
You don’t read the blog very often do you?
- Jocko - Wednesday, Jul 15, 26 @ 2:27 pm:
==the number one hustle in destroying the middle-class is decimation of union membership==
‘what’s the matter with Kansas?” should be required reading in Civics class. Instead parents are clamoring to read bible excerpts.
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Jul 15, 26 @ 2:52 pm:
=‘what’s the matter with Kansas?” should be required reading in Civics class. Instead parents are clamoring to read bible excerpts.=
Yes, yes, and yes again (banned punctuation). This book is one of the most underrated books of the early 2000’s and is still valid today. I wish I could make our students read it.