* US District Court in the Northern District of Illinois…
On May 28, 2021, the Illinois General Assembly approved a state legislative redistricting plan before the release of the official population totals from the 2020 United States decennial census. The pandemic delayed release of the official population totals, although the United States Census Bureau (âthe Census Bureauâ) had announced previously that those totals would be available by mid-August 2021. The Illinois General Assembly elected not to wait, and instead relied primarily on data from the American Community Survey (âACSâ), a population estimate previously published by the Census Bureau, to determine the boundaries of Illinois legislative districts. With Governor Pritzkerâs signature, the General Assembly-approved redistricting plan (âthe June Redistricting Planâ) became effective as of June 4, 2021.
Two sets of Plaintiffs filed lawsuits contending that use of the ACS data resulted in the drawing of constitutionally-flawed legislative district boundaries. Those cases have been consolidated before this three-judge court (âCourtâ) convened under 28 U.S.C. § 2284(a). In both cases, Plaintiffs allege that the June Redistricting Plan impermissibly violated their right to Equal Protection under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Defendants in both cases have moved to dismiss [McConchie, 66, 80], [Contreras, 40, 55] Plaintiffsâ first amended complaints1 [McConchie, 51], [Contreras, 37]. Following the release of the official Census data, Plaintiffs in each case moved for summary judgment [McConchie, 76], [Contreras, 63].
For the reasons stated below, the Court denies the motions to dismiss [McConchie, 66, 80], [Contreras, 40, 55] in full, except to the extent that Plaintiff Martinez is dismissed from the first amended complaint in Contreras, see [37]. The Court also grants the Plaintiffsâ motions for summary judgment in full [Contreras, 63] and in part [McConchie, 76]. The Court declares that the June Redistricting Plan, Public Act 102-0010, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and enjoins the Defendant State Board of Elections and Defendant Members, Charles W. Scholz, Ian K. Linabarry, William M. McGuffage, William J. Cadigan, Katherine S. OâBrien, Laura K. Donahue, Casandra B. Watson, and William R. Haine, in their official capacities as members of the Illinois State Board of Elections, from enforcing Public Act 102-0010.
Finally, the Court will not require formal dispositive motion practice (e.g., motions under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b) and 56) on the second amended complaints and sets the schedule for the selection of a court-approved state redistricting map as follows: (1) Plaintiffsâ submissions for proposed revisions to the September Redistricting Plan, Public Act 102-0663, accompanied by a statement explaining how those revisions cure any constitutional or statutory defects in the September Redistricting Plan, are to be filed on the docket no later than November 8, 2021; (2) Defendantsâ responses and objections to the submissions are to be submitted no later than November 18, 2021. This case is set for further status on November 5, 2021, at 11:00 a.m. […]
Taking into account the totality of the circumstancesâboth agreed and disputedâwe will proceed therefore toward the approval of a map for Illinois legislative districts for the next decade using the September Redistricting Plan as a starting point, but also carefully considering the legal challenges raised in the operative second amended complaints. Having found the June Redistricting Plan unconstitutional and therefore reached the remedial phase of proceedings, the Court will not require formal dispositive motion practice (e.g., under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b) and 56) on the seconded amended complaints [McConchie, 116], [Contreras, 98]. To the extent that the September Redistricting Plan does not pass muster, Plaintiffs are invited to submit proposed alternative maps for the Courtâs consideration accompanied by a statement explaining (1) the constitutional or statutory defects in the September Redistricting Plan and, (2) how the revisions or alternatives cure such defects. Defendants will likewise receive an opportunity to respond to the proposed alternative maps and accompanying assessment according to the schedule set out at the conclusion of this opinion.
In other words, the first version of the map has been tossed over unconstitutional population deviation between districts (the courts have long had a rule about that and the new Illinois map was in clear violation). The second version is now under judicial review because the court declared the first version unconstitutional. And the court has invited plaintiffs, meaning the Republicans and MALDEF, to submit their own alternative maps with specific emphasis on how their alternatives address the Democrats’ alleged defects.
Also, the court rejected the Republican claim that the failure to draw a constitutional map by the deadline triggers the state’s non-partisan remap commission process.
…Adding… Press release…
Below is a statement from Senate Republican Leader Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorn Woods) and House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) on Illinoisâ redistricting maps being declared unconstitutional today in court:
âTodayâs ruling is a victory for Illinois citizens, advocacy groups and communities of interest. During this process the Republican caucuses consistently demanded transparency and fairness in mapmaking, which were rejected by the Democrats and Governor Pritzker. The courtâs ruling validates all the concerns that were raised during the Democratsâ unconstitutional attempt to gerrymander Illinois.â
…Adding… Tribune…
Though Democratic lawmakers passed and Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the updated map last month, they did not repeal the earlier estimated-population map approved in May.
That prompted concerns that if the new map was ruled unconstitutional, the earlier map using population estimates would take effect. The court said it needed to rule on the unconstitutionality of the original map to prevent that from happening.
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Our sorry state
Tuesday, Oct 19, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Hannah Meisel…
In the early days, weeks and months of the pandemic, COVID-19 ravaged nursing homes, killing thousands of elderly and frail residents and forcing the isolation of thousands more.
Though long-term care facilities statewide locked down, forbidding outside visits from family members, staff from the Illinois Department of Public Health charged with investigating complaints of abuse and neglect should still have been going in to those facilities.
But for the first three and a half months of the pandemic, they werenât. Pritzkerâs administration admitted to that error last summer after severing ties with two IDPH officials and catching up on the 272 missed abuse and neglect complaints, substantiating 17 of them. The agency hired a former federal prosecutor to review the unsubstantiated claims.
âOur top priority as a regulator of long-term care facilities in Illinois is ensuring vulnerable Illinoisans are kept safe by those responsible for their care,â IDPH Director Ngozi Ezike said in a course-correcting news release last August. âAnything short of that is unacceptable, and our entire department is committed to getting this right as we move forward.â
In service of that goal, IDPH also paid $425,000 to an outside firm to examine what went wrong inside the agency and how its processes could be improved to prevent such a major dereliction of duty from happening again.
More than 13 months later, however, the report remains unpublished, though itâs been complete since Nov. 30, 2020. A copy obtained by NPR Illinois shows the outside review was critical of IDPH, its Bureau of Long Term Care and the Office of Health Care Regulation directly responsible for investigating nursing home abuse and neglect complaints.
But as Pritzker and some Democrats in the General Assembly attempt to overhaul how the state reimburses nursing homes with Medicaid patients â a move they say will engender more accountability and equity â the report paints a complicated picture that neither fully bolsters Pritzkerâs argument for an overhaul nor the resistance from the nursing home industry warning its cash-poor facilities will close en masse.
Scroll down…
According to the national Staff Time and Resource Intensity Verification, or STRIVE Project, Illinois accounts for 47 of the 100 most understaffed facilities in the nation when comparing actual staffing levels against their target levels within STRIVE.
The persistent staffing issue is at the heart of Pritzkerâs proposed overhaul to how the state pays nursing homes; the Department of Healthcare and Family Services wants to increase nursing home reimbursement rates, but have those increases tied to a facilityâs staffing levels and other safety improvements.
But Manattâs consultants found IDPH has long had the power â and has actually been obligated by state law â to enforce skilled nursing facility staffing ratio requirements, but hasnât.
*facepalm*
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COVID-19 roundup
Tuesday, Oct 19, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Tuesday that a continued decline in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in Illinois could lead him to lift âcertain mask mandatesâ in time for the holiday season.
âWe want to remove the mitigations as we approach the holidays,â Pritzker said during a COVID-19 briefing at the James R. Thompson Center in the Loop. âThatâs an important marker for us.â
âWe want to make sure that these numbers keep going down,ââ he said. […]
At the time the mandate was issued, Pritzker pointed to the recommendation from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that people wear masks indoors in areas of âsubstantialâ or âhighâ coronavirus transmission. As of Monday, that still included all but two of the stateâs 102 counties, both of them downstate.
Map…
* Pritzker was responding to a question from Amy Jacobson about the state’s mask mandates…
Well, we’re continuing, again, to watch the numbers. You know that we look at these every day, Dr. Ezike and the IDPH team. And we work with them to determine when the right time is. I think you’ve seen that, although numbers have come down. And I know pretty much every moment of every day, you’ve wanted us to remove every single mitigation. Every question that you give is a question about removing mitigations. I want them to go away too. But we want to make sure that we’re keeping people healthy and safe, following the guidelines that doctors are offering for us. And so we’ll continue to do that. And obviously we want to remove the mitigations as we approach the holidays. These are you know, that’s an important marker for us. We want to make sure these numbers keep going going down and we’d like very much to head into, you know we have three holidays coming up. But especially Thanksgiving and Christmas, where people spend extended amounts of time together. So we’d like very much to get to a place where we can remove certain mask mandates.
Please pardon any transcription errors.
* Hannah Meisel took a look at the numbers in a long thread and concluded…
* But then up comes the clickbait headlines…
Gov. JB Pritzker Hopes To Lift Statewide Indoor Mask Mandate In Time For Holidays
* IPHA…
Community Health Workers responded to 5,586 service requests in September.
Behind each request is someone experiencing the harmful, long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. As demonstrated in the data table below, most of the service requests received in September were for basic human needs, such as food and household items, income assistance (including rent and utility payment programs), and even finding a safe place to quarantine. […]
Notice also that [southern Illinois] Region Five, despite being a more rural, sparsely populated part of Illinois, had the highest number of service requests for the month. Health administrators in those southernmost 20 counties reported all intensive care unit beds were in-use as a surge tore through the region. This left patients who would have otherwise been hospitalized with few options other than to remain isolated at home for several days.
…Adding… Today’s data…
* More…
* Pritzker pushes COVID booster shots for eligible residents: Pritzker urged skilled nursing facilities to make booster shots available to all residents and staff before Thanksgiving. The Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs is also preparing to provide booster shots to residents at state-run veteranâs homes.
* You can’t work at this southwestern Illinois hospital without COVID-19 vaccination: “As the principal healthcare provider in our community, we should serve as a leader to our patients, families, coworkers, and community,” President of Touchette Regional Hospital Jay Willsher said.
* Just 54% of Chicago Police Officers Tell City Officials They Are Vaccinated Against COVID-19
* Compliance with vaccine mandate for city employees worst among police, firefighters
* Hearing planned Wednesday in Chicago Fraternal Order of Police’s battle with city over vaccine mandate
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Support Regulated Pet Stores And Defeat Puppy Mills
Tuesday, Oct 19, 2021 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Illinois families will soon be losing their opportunity to purchase dogs and cats from safe, highly-regulated local pet retailers, such as Petland, who offer their customers the choice of a pet that best fits their needs and provide health warranties. This change is coming because the stateâs Animal Welfare Act has been updated through HB 1711 which bans the retail sales of dogs and cats obtained from licensed and regulated professional breeders.
But HB 1711 needs fixing, because while singularly blocking retail pet sales, it fails to strengthen any animal standards or protections at unregulated puppy mills across the state. Consumers looking for particular breeds will have no choice but to purchase dogs from unregulated breeders or dog auctions â thus perpetuating puppy mills. Responsible breeders and retailers will be heavily penalized while HB 1711 does nothing to address the issue of substandard breeders across the state.
Petland is dedicated to improving animal welfare and we have publicly demonstrated this commitment; in fact, we support the Humane Societyâs petition effort to improve standards of care. Petlandâs breeder pledge is a commitment to provide more space, more exercise, and more socialization for their pets plus numerous other improvements to standards of care.
Home - Protect Our Pets Illinois
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Changes urged to HCRCA
Tuesday, Oct 19, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Tribune…
Separately, Pritzker will be pushing for legislation to prevent some public employees, including police officers and teachers, from trying to skirt COVID-19 vaccine mandates by citing a state law that allows people to avoid certain health care services for moral or religious reasons.
The stateâs Health Care Right of Conscience Act was intended to allow health care workers, especially those at Roman Catholic hospitals, to deny the distribution of emergency contraceptives to patients seeking abortions.
In broad terms, the law applies to âany phase of patient care,â but whether the law indeed applies to vaccine mandates will be taken up at some point during two-week session.
Some courts have ruled in favor of employees who citied the right of conscience exemption. But the Pritzker administration said the law is being interpreted incorrectly by those resisting the vaccine requirements and is seeking to exempt masking and vaccine mandates from the statute.
The administration’s language would also exempt testing….
âTestingâ is specifically included in the lawâs definition of health care.
That’s the key here that too many in the media don’t appear to quite grasp. The unvaxed are claiming they shouldn’t be required to be regularly tested. It’s a wholly ridiculous argument.
* Capitol News Illinois…
The Health Care Right of Conscience Act defines conscience as âa sincerely held set of moral convictions arising from belief in and relation to God, or which, though not so derived, arises from a place in the life of its possessor parallel to that filled by God among adherents to religious faiths.â On those lines, certain care can be refused.
The governorâs office has been promoting legislation that would narrow the allowable exemptions when it comes to COVID-19 requirements, although a spokesperson did not identify the exact language it was pursuing.
âThe Health Care Right of Conscience Act was never intended to allow people to avoid public health guidance and jeopardize workplace safety during a global pandemic. The administration supports efforts to clarify the law, so it cannot be misinterpreted by fringe elements,â Pritzker spokesperson Emily Bittner said in a statement Monday.
Subscribers have the proposed language.
* Meanwhile, the SJ-R continues to run big splashy stories about a couple of Springfield teachers who are refusing to be tested regularly based on their “conscience”…
The resolutions, “notices to remedy,” were unanimously passed by the school board without discussion. They stated the teachers’ actions could “(warrant) discharge and dismissal.”
The two stood by each other and later embraced as the resolutions were read by assistant superintendent of human resources Gina McLaughlin-Schurman. […]
Koen and Keys have cited “personal liberties” as motives for defying the governor’s mandate. Neither said they were budging from their positions as they and several supporters, including fellow teachers, addressed the board in the public comment section.
“That they’ve taken (our livelihoods) from us over something that is completely illegal and completely irrational is unconscionable,” Keys said of the mandate.
If your conscience tells you not to be tested regularly for a debilitating and potentially fatal disease after refusing to take a safe vaccine, there’s something very, very wrong with your conscience. Making heroes out of these two without making that clear is beyond irresponsible.
* Center Square…
Elsewhere throughout the state, local officials seem to be negotiating mandates in good faith with local law enforcement unions, [Illinois Fraternal Order of Police President Chris Southwood] said. If not, he said thereâs always the stateâs Health Care Right of Conscience Act.
âIt clearly states that itâs unlawful to discriminate because of a personâs conscientious refusal to receive health care service contrary to his or her conscience,â he said. âWe clearly feel we can fall back on that when we need to when it comes to these vaccine mandates and how they are implemented.â […]
The FOP he said will be lobbying against any possible changes to the Health Care Right of Conscience Act, a decades-old law he says gives broad protections to people refusing medical treatments that go against their beliefs.
âWeâll let General Assembly members know right up front that if you vote for changes to this act, weâre going to make sure your constituents are aware that you voted for changes to that act,â he said.
I’m fairly certain that the majority of Illinoisans will find it ridiculous for the unvaxed to use a “conscience” excuse to opt out of regular COVID testing.
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The other side of the “Fair Map” debate
Tuesday, Oct 19, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Russell Berman at The Atlantic…
The stakes for the reapportionment that follows the decennial census are always enormous; the redistricting process draws lines for Congress and state legislatures that endure for a decade. But the consequences over the next few years could stretch far beyond the fate of President Joe Bidenâs agenda or whether a particular stateâs taxes go up or down: Given former President Donald Trumpâs continued dominance over the GOP and the possibility that he will run again, whichever party controls the House and key state legislative chambers could determine the next presidential election. That stark reality is giving the Democrats who championed nonpartisan commissions second thoughts. âAs a matter of policy, I think we should pursue these, because I think itâs the right thing to do,â Morgan Carroll, the chair of the Colorado Democratic Party, told me. âBut as a matter of politics, if across the country every Dem is for independent commissions and every Republican is aggressively gerrymandering maps, then the outcome is still a Republican takeover of the United States of America with a modern Republican Party that is fundamentally authoritarian and antidemocratic. And thatâs not good for the country.â
Democrats have not abandoned gerrymandering everywhere. In large blue states such as New York, Illinois, and Maryland, the party is expected to draw maps that maximize its partisan advantage. But Republicans control the redistricting process governing more seats, and given the Democratsâ narrow House majority, the GOP could take back power through gerrymandering alone. By giving up their mapping pens in just a few states, Democrats might also have given away their gavel.
No state illustrates the Democratsâ predicament better than Colorado, where the party holds the governorship and solid control of the legislature. That power could have allowed Democrats to draw a favorable new congressional seat, shore up their four House incumbents, and target the reelection bid of freshman GOP Representative Lauren Boebert, who supported Trumpâs bid to overturn last yearâs election. In 2018, however, Democrats backed a ballot initiative to hand power over congressional redistricting to a nonpartisan commission. The map that the panel has proposed would instead make the new Eighth District north of Denver a toss-up, potentially jeopardize at least one of the Democratic incumbents, and ease Boebertâs path to another term, Carroll told me. The difference between the commission map and what Democrats might have drawn themselves could be nearly enough to tip the balance of power in the entire House. âIt is a problem,â a high-ranking Colorado Democrat told me, speaking on the condition of anonymity to offer a candid assessment. […]
Along with Colorado, California now serves both as the model for the kind of redistricting commissions Democrats want to establish nationwide and as an impediment to their hopes of retaining power long enough to do so. The party controls 42 out of the stateâs 53 seats in Congressâeasily the biggest Democratic delegation in the countryâbut an aggressive Democratic gerrymander probably could have yielded a few more.
Obviously, there’s hyperbole in that piece, so take a deep breath before commenting.
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* Good infrastructure news from the Tribune…
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday unveiled a six-year timeline for the $1.2 billion reconstruction of Interstate Highway 80 through Will County, including work on aging bridges over the Des Plaines River considered so decrepit that unions put up billboards with warnings such as âCross bridge at your own riskâ two years ago.
âIn recent decades, this stretch of I-80 has also come to represent the disinvested infrastructure that Illinois used to be notorious for,â Pritzker said during a news conference Monday in New Lenox. âThatâs all changing.â
* Bad infrastructure news from the Tribune…
On Saturday morning, Dixmoor resident Martha Montero turned on her shower to find nothing. But she had water stored in a cupboard from the numerous other times this had happened. […]
The issues with water have been ongoing for about two years, said 29-year-old Montero. […]
The town has been without a reliable and consistent water source since Saturday. According to Dixmoor Village President Fitzgerald Roberts, that is because of breaks in the pipe that brings water into Dixmoor, affecting the whole townâs water supply. The latest break was Monday. […]
Harvey supplies water to other towns including East Hazel Crest, Hazel Crest, Homewood and Posen.
Homewood is in the process of switching its water source due to âerratic water ratesâ and âunreliable infrastructure,â said Homewoodâs marketing director Jennifer Quirke.
* And I still don’t know what to make of this idea…
The developer behind the proposed $20 billion One Central development revealed details for the projectâs first phase: a transit center surrounded by roughly 1.4 million square feet of retail, dining and entertainment space on a 35-acre site above the train tracks near Soldier Field.
The full plans for One Central, unveiled in 2019, include up to 22.3 million square feet of buildings with as many as 9,050 residential units and 9.45 million square feet of offices. The project still needs city and state approval to proceed, and Landmark president Bob Dunn has said he expects to submit a zoning application by late October or early November.
* Related…
* Rush hour is coming back, but slower traffic hasnât meant fewer crashes: One solution is to put âtraffic calmingâ measures onto city streets, which can help protect cyclists and pedestrians too, as biking and walking are growing in popularity throughout Chicago and the suburbs, she said. That can include lower speed limits, pedestrian islands and crosswalks in roadways and bike lanes, which both provide space for cyclists and narrow streets to encourage lower speeds. The measures might be one way to reverse not only the pandemic spike in traffic fatalities and deaths, but also a longer-term uptick in the Chicago area that predated the pandemic, Wilkison said.
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