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Discorso di insediamento del Presidente Roberto Fico
Marco Oriolesi, Unsplash

In Scott v. City of Daytona Beach,
the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down several provisions of a city ordinance that restricted panhandling.
Daytona Beach, Florida, enacted Ordinance No. 19-27 in 2019.
The ordinance banned “aggressive panhandling” throughout the city, banned
traditional panhandling in numerous locations, and restricted certain methods
of panhandling.
Four men who regularly panhandled in Daytona Beach challenged
the ordinance both facially and as applied to them, arguing it violated
their First Amendment free-speech rights. After conducting a lengthy standing
analysis for each plaintiff and each challenged provision, the court addressed
the merits of the…
Continue Reading 11th Circuit Finds City Panhandling Ordinance Unconstitutional

A candidate applied for a probationary police officer position with a city police department. As part of the application process, the city conducted a background investigation that found two police reports that included allegations of assault and stalking by the candidate against two women. After investigating the incidents and interviewing the candidate, the city removed the candidate from the eligibility list for dishonesty during the interview and past criminal conduct. The candidate challenged his disqualification with the city’s police board which upheld the decision. He then filed an appeal with the circuit court which also upheld the city’s disqualification. On appeal…
Continue Reading Court Upholds Disqualification of Police Officer Candidate for Past Conduct

In Schukar, et al. v. Kenosha County, et al., the Seventh Circuit Court of
Appeals upheld a district court’s decision in favor of
police officers in a First and Fourth Amendment case brought by
photojournalists relating to a protest incident.  
On August 25, 2020, two photojournalists were documenting a protest at the Kenosha County Courthouse. The protest was
sparked by the shooting of a 29-year-old Black male by a City of
Kenosha police officer. During the protest, both protestors and police officers
launched objects at one another, including the officers’ launching of foam
batons that hit and injured the…
Continue Reading Court Rules Against Journalists in Lawsuit Against Police Officers for Injuries Sustained at a Protest

An Illinois Appellate Court held that a board of fire and police commissioners did not have jurisdiction to hear disciplinary charges against a police officer because the hearing was not held within 30 days of the filing of the charges. Harris v. City of Madison Board of Fire and Police Commissioners. A city police chief filed written disciplinary charges with the city’s board of fire and police commission seeking a police officer’s removal from the police department. The charges alleged that the officer fraudulently documented time spent patrolling. The board commenced a hearing but heard no testimony, received no evidence,…
Continue Reading Board of Fire And Police Commission Had No Jurisdiction to Hear Disciplinary Charges

Discorso di insediamento del Presidente Roberto Fico
Marco Oriolesi, Unsplash

An Illinois Appellate Court reversed a city’s decision regarding an ordinance violation, finding that the city lacked jurisdiction because it failed to properly serve the homeowner under the city’s hearing and notice procedures. McCain v. City of Granite City.

A city sent a homeowner letters notifying her that her property was in violation of several local property maintenance regulations. The letters gave her a few weeks to cure the violations, and when that deadline passed without a cure, the city sent notice to the homeowner by regular mail of an administrative hearing on the violations. The homeowner argued that…
Continue Reading Ordinance Violation Order Vacated for Failure to Properly Serve Notice of Administrative Hearing

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a “takings” challenge to a city ordinance that protects tenants in residential buildings when ownership is transferred through a foreclosure action. BBLI Edison, LLC v. City of Chicago.In 2021, the City of Chicago adopted the “Keep Chicago Renting Ordinance.” That ordinance requires anyone who obtains a rental property through a foreclosure action to negotiate new leases with existing tenants in good faith and if the tenant declines to renew a lease, pay the tenant $10,600 to assist with relocation expenses. When BBLI took control of a rental property through a sheriff’s deed…
Continue Reading In the Zone: Court Rejects "Takings" Challenge to City’s Rental Assistance Ordinance

In its 7th binding opinion for 2026, the Public Access Counselor for the Illinois Attorney General (PAC) found a public body in violation of the Open Meetings Act by taking final action at a board meeting without setting forth the general subject matter of the item on the meeting agenda. PAC Op. 26-007. The PAC did find the board provided an adequate public recital prior to voting on the matter, however.A reporter filed a complaint with the PAC alleging that a public body voted on the creation of new employment positions without adequately describing the proposed action on its…
Continue Reading PAC Finds Public Body in Violation of OMA Because Agenda Description Was Not Sufficient

A federal court of appeals upheld the termination of a city firefighter after he posted several racially charged and offensive posts on his personal Facebook account. Inendino v. Nance-Holt.
A firefighter worked for a city fire department for 16 years. Most of his work was at a station in a predominantly Black neighborhood of the city. As an EMT, he had frequent contact with the public and engaged directly with patients. He had a personal Facebook page which was publicly viewable. On his personal Facebook page, he identified himself as a city firefighter, and his profile picture depicted him on

…
Continue Reading Appeals Court Rules in Favor of City in Challenge to Firefighter’s Termination for Social Media Posts

Microphone on a karaoke night
Kane Reinholdtsen, Unsplash

In Merriott v. City of Bossier City, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a city’s “decorum” policy for city meetings violated the First Amendment because it was overly broad as well as vague in prohibiting personal, impertinent, and slanderous remarks and “becoming boisterous” during public comment.

An online journalist attended city council meetings where the city clerk read from the city’s rules of decorum for public comment. Those rules included restrictions on cell phone usage, imposed time limits on speakers, and required the audience to maintain decorum. At one of the meetings, the city clerk read the…
Continue Reading Public Comment Policy Overly Broad and Vague Under First Amendment

Although this case does not involve local governments, it is an interesting case involving social media posts and a defamation lawsuit. Sullivan v. Schiman. A patient posted on a local “updates and information” Facebook page about a doctor she had seen in the emergency room. Her post named the doctor and claimed that he had sexually assaulted her in giving a rectal examination. That Facebook post was then made a “featured post” by the Facebook page’s administrator, which meant it was the first post on that Facebook page. When the doctor learned about the post, he filed a complaint against…
Continue Reading Court Sends Social Media Defamation Case Back to Trial Court to Award Compensatory Damages

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling upholding a district court’s decision in favor of city police officers in an excessive force case. Davis v. City of Elgin.

Police were dispatched to a home after someone called to report that an individual was threatening his ex-wife and roommate with a shotgun. Police called the suspect, who threatened to harm himself with a knife. The police then surrounded the house but the suspect had already left the home and gone to his neighbors.  The suspect came outside to the porch but when he refused police orders to come…
Continue Reading Court Rejects Excessive Force Claim Against Police Officers

To alleviate flooding, a municipality designed and planned certain modifications to its stormwater system. A quarry owner opposed the planned improvements and filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction to stop the municipality from modifying its stormwater system as planned. The trial court denied the injunction and ruled that the municipality possessed an easement across the quarry that was granted by a predecessor owner of the quarry. The owner appealed.On appeal, the Appellate Court upheld the ruling of the trial court. First, the Court determined that there was substantial evidence that the municipality held an easement across the quarry based on…
Continue Reading In the Zone: Court Denies Injunction Against Village’s Proposed Storm Improvements

A black handgun on black cloth, with ammunition
Tom Def, Unsplash

The Illinois General Assembly enacted the Protect Illinois Communities Act following a deadly shooting at a Chicago suburb’s Independence Day parade. That Act criminalizes the manufacture, sale, delivery, purchase,
and possession of assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, among other things. The Act contains a grandfather clause that allows preexisting lawful owners of the regulated items to continue possessing them.

Shortly after the Act was adopted, several lawsuits were filed to challenge its constitutionality. The district court decisions were divided, with one court granting a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the Act and two district courts denying injunctive relief. Those appeals…
Continue Reading Seventh Circuit Upholds "Protect Illinois Communities Act" that Restricts Assault Weapons and Large Capacity Magazines

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Gabe Pierce, Unsplash

Two years ago, the State of Illinois began the process of
consolidating the operation and management of programs previously administered
by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), Illinois
Department of Human Services (IDHS), Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE),
and the Governor’s Office of Early Childhood Development (GOECD). As of July 1, 2026, the Illinois Department
of Early Childhood (IDEC) began operations to complete the transition.
Just before IDEC began operating, the Governor signed into
law Public Act 104-0480 adopting comprehensive reforms in license
regulations for day care centers. The
new act creates three tiers of licensing…
Continue Reading Illinois Adopts Amendments to Child Care Licensing; Provides Direction to Newly Organized Department of Early Childhood

In a 6-3 opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional a Hawaii law that prohibited firearms on private property open to
the public without the express and affirmative consent of the property owner. Wolford v.
Lopez.
Following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York
State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, which ended “may-issue”
concealed carry licensing schemes, Hawaii enacted HRS
§ 134-9.5. The law provided that a person carrying a licensed firearm could
not enter or remain on private property of another person “unless the person
has been given express authorization to…
Continue Reading Supreme Court Invalidates Hawaii Firearm "Owner Consent" Restriction

A
news media requester submitted a FOIA request to a police department seeking
records related to an investigation of an arrested individual for a domestic
incident. The department entirely denied its responsive records to the request
citing FOIA’s personal privacy exemption in Section 7(1)(c) of FOIA. After the
requester submitted a request for review to the Illinois Attorney General’s
Public Access Counselor (PAC) challenging the denial, the PAC issued its
sixth binding opinion of 2026 concluding that the department improperly
withheld its responsive records. PAC
Op. 26-006The PAC first noted that previous PAC opinions were clear that there is…
Continue Reading PAC Finds Police Department Violated FOIA in Withholding Investigative Records