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         Monday, January 9, 2012        

Rob Sherman files Appeal Brief in Indian Trails case
challenging the use of public funds for electioneering

Rob Sherman and the four other Petitioners in the case filed an Appeal Brief with the Illinois Appellate Court on Friday, January 6, 2012, seeking to reverse the decision of the Circuit Court of Cook County in our case against the Indian Trails Public Library District.  This case seeks to void the results of the Library's massive 2011 property tax increase referendum because the District illegally and unconstitutionally used thousands of tax dollars for electioneering to rig the outcome of the election in favor of passage of the referendum.

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The Circuit Court held that the Library could keep the proceeds of their crimes, even if the Library did commit a massive crime spree to rig the outcome of the election.  According to the Circuit Court, the only possible penalty the Library might face is being required to pay to the State Board of Elections a relatively small fine out from the proceeds of their crimes against the taxpayers.

That kind of logic and that type of jurisprudence make no sense at all.  It tells every level of government in Illinois that crime pays, and pays Big Time.  It tells government that they are passing up a golden opportunity if they don't use tax dollars to rig the outcome of elections, especially property tax increase referenda.

In the Brief that we filed, we asked the Appellate Court to decide, among other things:

• whether the Library "can reap the ill-begotten fruits of its use of public funds for partisan electioneering political activity in violation of" the Illinois Constitution and the Illinois Election Code, "which prohibit use of public funds for political activity,"

• whether the five Petitioners, including myself, who filed the Complaint, are "entitled to the remedy of voiding and nullifying the results of a referendum, where the" Library District "unconstitutionally advanced a 'pro-referendum' political message, paid for with public funds ... to manipulate, influence and skew the outcome of votes on a referendum,"

• whether voiding the referendum is the appropriate remedy in light of Article I, Section 12, of the Illinois Constitution, which states that “Every person shall find a certain remedy in the laws for all injuries and wrongs which he receives to his person, privacy, property or reputation,” and

• "whether the Illinois Constitution and Election Code provide voters in a public body’s geographic district with a meaningful opportunity and basis upon which to seek equitable relief for a public body’s otherwise prohibited use of public funds for political activity, specifically targeted at influencing and supporting an election referendum, thus opposing and diluting opposing voters' political speech and their respective votes."

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