Judicial Rulings
U.S. Appellate Court
Private 'male' clubs
Private clubs that serve liquor may bar women and members of minority groups as members and guests, according to a December 21 1st District Appellate Court decision. The ruling said that the 1970 Illinois Constitution permits private organizations to adopt a "selective membership policy." Thus, the court said, the state Liquor Control Act ( Ill. Rev. Stat. 1975, ch. 115) cannot prevent clubs from "limiting the use of their facilities and the sale of personal property" to any group they choose. The clubs named in the suit are the Chicago Athletic Club, the Chicago Club, the Union League Club, the Attic Club and the Mid-Day Club. Since all five clubs hold liquor licenses, the State Liquor Control Commission was also a defendant because it issued the licenses. The ruling came on a 2-1 decision, with Judge Seymour F. Simon dissenting. (Ruttenberg v. Liquor Control Commission)

U.S. District Court
Minority contractors
U.S. District Court Judge J. Waldo Ackerman, of the Southern District of Illinois, issued a consent decree last December restricting an Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) requirement on hiring of minority contractors. The decree was consented to by IDOT and Associated General Contractors of Illinois, who had filed suit against the department. The suit alleged "reverse discrimination" under a special provision of most state highway contracts, calling for employment of minority contractors on 2 to 4 per cent of the work. Judge Ackerman ordered limitations on the use of the "Special Provision." He asked the department to consider all relevant factors in finding whether to apply the minority hi ring requirement. The decree named three specific factors, including: size of contract, nature of the work and availability of minority firms in the geographic area. Procedures for enforcement and for final review of contracts containing the special provision were spelled out in the decree. Those procedures include "publication by the IDOT of a list of minority firms which identifies the firm by name, address, type of work ready, willing and able to perform, and the geographic area of the State in which the firm works. (Associated General Contractors of Illinois v. Langhorne M. Bond)

Illinois Supreme Court
Display of swastika
Members of the National Socialist Party of America (the American Nazi Party) have a constitutional right to display swastikas in their marches through the Chicago suburb of Skokie, according to a January 27 Illinois Supreme Court ruling. "The display of the swastika, as offensive to the principles of a free nation as the memories it recalls may be, is symbolic political speech intended to convey to the public the beliefs of those who display it," the court held in an unsigned opinion.

The court said it was ruling "reluctantly" that the tiny group may display its "offensive symbol" under 1st Amendment protection of the U.S. bill of rights. Justice William G. Clark dissented.

The ruling overturned an appellate court decision banning public display of the swastika in Skokie. The village had asked for the ban on grounds that the swastika represents "fighting words" to its citizens, who it said are predominately of "Jewish religion or Jewish ancestry." German Nazis, after whom the American Nazis pattern their uniforms and ideas, murdered millions of Jewish people and other Europeans less than two score years ago. Yet the court said that even Nazis are allowed free speech under the U.S. Constitution. (Village of Skokie v. National Socialist Party of America)

Circuit Court
Divorce law struck down
A new Illinois divorce law that became effective October 1 was declared unconstitutional December 23 by a Cook County Circuit Court. A key provision of the law — struck down by Judge Donald J. O'Brien — gave both partners equal rights to all property acquired during a marriage. The decision has been appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court.

Circuit Court Judge James T. Londrigan refused last December to issue an order restraining enforcement of a law requiring public employers to pay unemployment compensation benefit premiums. The Illinois Municipal League sought the restraining order in Sangamon County. A hearing is to be set on the suit for a preliminary injunction.

38/ March 1978/ Illinois Issues

Air pollution
Twenty-six counties in Illinois are in violation of national air quality health standards according to an Illinois Environmental Protection Agency December report.

No new construction or industry modification will be allowed, and all sewer construction grants and highway funds from the federal government could be cut off if the problems aren't corrected by Congress' 1982 clean air deadline. The counties and their respective problems are: Cook — carbon dioxide, suspended particulates, nitrogen dioxide and ozone; Peoria — carbon monoxide, suspended particulates, sulfur dioxide, and ozone; Tazewell — suspended particulates, sulfur dioxide and ozone; DuPage, Will, Rock Island, Macon, Sangamon, LaSalle, Madison and St. Clair — suspended particulates and ozone; Massac — sulfur dioxide; Champaign, McLean, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, Boone, DeKalb and Winnebago — ozone. The Bank of Illinois at Shawneetown was approved for inclusion in the "Illinois Register of Historic Places" by the Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council. It is the first site to be listed since the Register was created in 1976. Preliminary approval was given the Hoffman Tower and Dam, Lyons and Ivanhoe Congregational Church, Mundelein.

The Illinois Department of Business and Economic Development European office in Brussels, Belgium, is celebrating its 10th anniversary. The overseas office has helped Illinois become currently the number one exporting state — grossing $10 billion in manufactured and agricultural products. The state's two other foreign offices are located in Hong Kong and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Illinois communities and recreation agencies have been awarded $8, 652, 919 in Federal Land and Water Conservation Funds to help finance 71 recreation projects. The projects include purchase and development of park land, nature trails, athletic fields and swimming pools. The program will be coordinated by the Department of Conservation.

The Illinois State Scholarship Commission (ISSC) is not expecting too big a crunch for scholarship applications during the 1978-79 school year. A commission spokesman said approximately 20, 000 applications had arrived so far and it is expected that 160, 000 total applications will be processed for scholarship awards for the new school year. Last year the ISSC switched over to computer programming and found itself fighting for computer time with the General Assembly. The General Assembly won out and the commission was unable to get ahead of its backlog. This year everything is running more smoothly, according to the ISSC.

Auditor General's Reports

THE AUDITOR general's office found major management mistakes in two state agencies — the Illinois Mental Health Institutes, and the Illinois Office of Education (the operational office of the State Board of Education) — in its audit reports issued in mid-December.

Mental Health Institutes
The mental health audit showed that state general revenue funds were used improperly in one program where Federal Title I grant funds were available. Seven teachers were hired for juvenile patients at a cost of $68, 000 that should have been spent elsewhere, the audit showed. Secondly, there had been some mishandling of vouchers in the amusement and trust funds of the Institute. Problems existed either because employees were not careful or were not properly trained, the audit said. Another error involved careless control of department property. It was reported that property records were not updated on a timely basis to show items that were reassigned within the agency or to other agencies. Also, equipment declared obsolete in 1975 had not yet been replaced in 1977, and books and records of the Department of Mental Health had not been properly transferred to the institute, a separate recording entity since 1975.

Office of Education
An audit of the Illinois Office of Education found a failure to audit all state aid claims "as required by the Illinois School Code." The education office audited only about 10 per cent of special education claims in 1977, but, overall, audited about 90 per cent of claims for state aid. Such audits resulted in adjustments on 2 per cent of claims or $2.8 million; meaning too large an amount of money was paid out to school districts.

Another problem was that some contracts and leases were signed after the effective date. Also there were problems with personnel policies, including lack of a formal method for deciding who may earn compensatory time-off, and of keeping records about that. Other problems were: poor documentation of employee attendance, errors in calculating payroll vouchers and files without personnel time and attendance records. Finally, the audit revealed federal grant administration weaknesses, a data processing deficiency and weaknesses in internal control of cash receipts.

Attorney General Opinions

Lobbyist registration
Lobbyist organizations in Illinois are required to follow certain guidelines of the Lobbyist Registration Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1975, ch. 63, sec. 171 et seq.). Lobbyist organizations are referred to as "persons" in the act, defined as "any individual, firm, partnership, committee, association, corporation, or any other organization or group of persons." A lobbyist must report all expenditures made for promoting or opposing legislation.

The amount of money spent, whether by credit card, cash or check, must be reported in itemized detail, showing what person or legislator received money or who benefited from it. Amounts under $25 must be reported and show what persons benefited, but can be reported in aggregate amounts. When a lobbyist opposes or supports legislation, the word "legislation" means "bills, resolutions, amendments, nominations, and other matters pending or proposed in either house of the General Assembly." When the lobbyist is a lawyer working for a law firm retained by some organization, that attorney must disclose the name of the organization being represented, and not just the law firm for which he or she is working.

Immediately following issuance of this opinion, Secy. of State Alan J. Dixon announced improvements in the lobbyist registration and expenditure reporting forms required by law to be filed in his office. The changes allow compliance with the attorney general's opinion (S-1319).

Confidentiality of juvenile records, S-1318: Police records of a juvenile may be open to the public if criminal proceedings are instituted against that juvenile. The disclosure of juvenile records can occur through a court order, when criminal proceedings are permitted, or if that juvenile is subject to a pre-sentence investigation for probation.

Copying voter registration records, S-1323: In Illinois it is permissible to copy county voter registration records. It is also permissible to copy the records if they are kept on computer tape, as long as the copying does not damage the tape or interfere with the efficiency of the processing of such records. County clerks have the authority to charge an individual or organization a fee for copying the records. The fee is the cost of such copies plus a service charge of 15 per cent.

School tax levy modification, S-1314: Local school district boards must file a certificate of tax levy prior to the last Tuesday of December of

March 1978/ Illinois Issues/39

every year if their district population is under 500,000. But should a district file the levy before receiving the assessed valuation multiplier, it can file a new tax levy certificate to provide revenue needed to maintain the schools in that district. The school boards of respective districts must take action prior to filing a new tax levy, by officially reflecting an increase, otherwise the original certificate would prevail and the newly filed certificate would become void.

County funds combined, S-1316: County treasurers or auditors are required by law to keep separate accounts of each county fund. But even though a separate record must be kept, the law does not prohibit combining such funds for investment purposes, unless a particular county fund is expressly prohibited by statute.

Governmental ethics/contract negotiations, S-1312: A commissioner of any housing authority is prohibited by law from acting as a representative of a labor union in contract negotiations with the housing authority.

Business/certificate of authority, S-1322: Domestic and to reign corporations in Illinois must comply with the Business Corporation Act (Ill. Rev. Stat., 1975, ch. 32, sec. 157.106) and pay license and franchise taxes based upon stated capital and paid-in surplus. Secy. of State Alan Dixon requested an opinion from the attorney general dealing with an amendment of a certificate of authority (allowing a foreign corporation to do business in Illinois) to change a corporation's ratio of stated capital and paid-in surplus. The corporation had previously filed with the state saying all its property holding was within the state, and paid 100 per cent of its stated capital and paid- in surplus, which amounted at the time to $1, 000. The corporation then acquired $600 million in property holdings, with only $2 million of the holdings located in Illinois. The secretary of state's office refused to accept amendment of the certificate of authority to change the corporation's stated capital and paid-in surplus to only a ratio of its holdings. Corporation specialist Robert Durnas, from the secretary of state's office, said the corporation could only change its holdings when it files an annual report, but not before then. He said the corporation was taxed 100 per cent of its stated capital and paid-in surplus, which the attorney general said was the correct procedure.

Interest from SSU property, S-1320: The Board of Regents does not have authority to grant Sangamon State University any income from property owned by the University. The state finance act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1975, ch. 127, sec. 142a4) provides that universities under the Board of Regents must, with specific exceptions, pay all income into the state treasury. The attorney general advised Auditor General Robert Cronson that "it is for the courts to determine whether the principles of equity support" a claim by the SSU Foundation that a "resulting trust" existed, entitling the university to income from the property. The foundation said such a resulting trust exists since the university paid the purchase price of the land, and since resolutions by the Board of Regents and the foundation declared such a trust. The SSU Foundation was to receive 85 per cent of the rental income under the trust. The attorney general said the Board of Regents is an agent of the state and can't, without legislative authorization, pay the foundation any income.

40/ March 1978 /Illinois Issues