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Home Rule in Illinois: a Modern Controversy Reignites an Old Debate by Lauirence E

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Home Rule in Illinois: a Modern Controversy Reignites an Old Debate by Lauirence E Home rule in Illinois: A modern controversy reignites an old debate by Lauirence E. White, Partner~ Chapman and Cutler LLP PARTNER 2014 A pitched battle over the rights of citizens to carry In i 850, John E Dillon, a medical doctor at the guns dominated much of the Ilinois legislative ses- age of 20, left his hometown of Davenport, Iowa, to ~ILLINOIS sion this past Spring. The debate was foisted on the practice his profession. However, a painful medical GOVERNMENT FINANCE legislature after a federal appeals court struck down condition of his own left him unable to ride horse- OFFICERS Ilinois' (the country's only) statewide ban on possess- back-a requirement of being a country doctor at the ASSOCIATION ing a firearm in public. Despire the court ruling, time-and he changed his career path and became a Chapman and Cutler some Ilinois municipalities continued to limit con- lawyer. He taught himself the law while he was run- LLC is an IGFOA ceal-and-carry rights. Citing Chicago's authority to ning a family drugstore in Davenport. By 1862 he Sustaining Partner regulate firearms under Ilinois' home rule doctrine, was serving on the Iowa Supreme Court. In 1872, for 2014. The Mayor Rahm Emanuel argued that the Illinois legisla- based on his unprecedented research on the topic, opportunity to ture should not abrogate Chicago's more stringent Dillon published his first edition of Commentaries gun-control laws. The Mayor's position was supported on the Law of Municipal Corporations, a treatise that present this by recenr Ilinois Supreme Court and Appellate Court would lay the groundwork for settling the debates educational article decisions. These decisions state that under the Ilinois of the future as to the powers of local government is a benefit of the home rule doctrine certain problems in which a city relative to the state. IGFOA Partner has a significant interest should be open to local solu- Dillon's findings, as set forth in the seminal case on Program. tion, free from veto by voters from other parts of the the topic, City of Clinton v. Cedar Rapids & Mo. River state who might disagree with the approach advanced R.R., decided by the Iowa Supreme Court in 1868, For information on by the city or might fail to appreciate the local per- the IGFOA Partners ception of the problem. Ilinois Governor Pat Quinn are known to this day as "Dilon's Rule." Dillon's Rule Program, see the front echoed the holdings of these decisions with an stands for the premise that cities and villages owe their origin to, and derive their powers wholly from, of this newsletter amendato~y veto to the conceal-and-carry legislation; or contact the amendatoty veto, among other things, would their state legislatures. 'The holding in Cedar Rapids [email protected] have preserved the rights of home rule units to enact states that the legislature creates the powers of local government, and consequently it may rescind them. future restrictions on assault weapons. The court further noted that while the chance is quite In the end, the state legislature bypassed home rule remote, a state legislature could, by a single piece of concerns by overriding the Governor's amendatory legislation, sweep from existence all of the cities and veto and adopted legislation that standardizes con- villages in its state. ceal-and-carry laws across the state. The new legisla- In 1868, the same year as Dillon's eloquent tion, which relaxes gun-control standards in Ilinois, opinion on the matter, Thomas M. Cooley, a former does contain a minor concession to cities and vilages; professor of law at the University of Michigan and it allows them to modify the "assault weapons" provi- Michigan Supreme Court Justice, published his own sions of the new law to suit local needs as long as such treatise concerning the powers of municipalities. The provisions are enacted within i ° days from the time book, Constitutional Limitations Which Rest upon the the law takes effect. However, home rule, the great Legislative Power of the States of the American Union, compromise between state and local governments went through six editions by i 890 and has been contained in the 1970 Ilinois Constiturion, was referenced as the best-known legal treatise in the late pre-empted by the new law and cities such as Chicago i 9th century. Cooley's treatise argued that local are now left to apply a standard for conceal-and-carry government (in the form of towns and counties) of weapons that may not reflect the will of their should have and does have greater autonomy than residents and elected offcials. other state-created municipal corporations because such municipalities represent a collective of people who I. Dilon's Rule v. Cooley Doctrine are united by location and community ties, a bond The tension between municipal and state govern- not found in state-created municipal corporations. ments has a long and storied history. Evidence of In 1871, soon after the first edition of his treatise conflict concerning the rights and privileges of was published, Cooley and the Michigan Supreme municipal government dates back to the mid- 19th Court staked our a different and opposite position century. While state and local offcials debated this from Dillon and the Iowa Supreme Court with respect topic in all regions of the country, the tension was to local government rights. In Leroy v. Hurlbut, the exemplified through the treatises and opinions of Michigan court found that each city operated under tWo Midwestern state supreme court justices. the protection of certain fundamental principles m which no power in the state could override or disregard. Over the next i 00 years, however, the views of About the author The court added that local government is a matter of many local offcials in Illinois shifted towards a strong absolute right and the state cannot takes such rights preference for more local control. In the very early Lawrence E. White is a away. Further, the court stated that it would be "the part of the 20th century, notwithstanding the Merrill partner in the public boldest mockery" to say a system of government decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, Ilinois, and finance department meets the requirements of constitutional freedom many other states, began to limit legislative authority of the Chicago Office where it is equally permitted to give people full to enact local laws. The intent of these restrictions was of the law firm of control of their local affairs, or no control at alL. to limit the legislature's ability to unduly interfere in a Chapman and Cutler municipalities' local affairs. Problematically, the state LLP. By the mid- i 800s, most state court had heard did not make corresponding amendments to its con- cases concerning the extent to which state legislatures stitution that would grant stronger powers to local He serves as bond could control municipal government, with differing governments to address matters of local concern. counselor disclosure results. Some state courts outside of Michigan Consequently, local governments lacked the authority counsel for many adopted Cooley's idea of inherent right to self-govern- to create laws applicable to their own affairs. By the ment, while others adhered to some form of Dillon's Illinois municipalities i 940s, the rigid restictions of the i 870 Ilinois and is a frequent Rule. 1he uncertainty regarding local government Constitution had resulted in an almost complete speaker on Illinois powers as they related to those of the state was firmly inability of large municipalities to police their public finance law. settled by the U.S. Supreme Court in favor of Dillon's populations. Chicago, for example, could not create position. In 189 i, the Court in Merrill v. Monticello He is a graduate of licensing fees, allocate tax revenue, or enforce city reversed an Indiana decision on the subject of powers criminal ordinances without fear of judicial invalidation the University of of local government. -The Supreme Court, quoting at the appellate leveL. Pennsylvania School Dillon, stated: of Law and has an Perhaps recognizing the need to grant stronger It is a general and undisputed proposition of undergraduate powers to certain local governments, including the accounting degree law that a municipal corporation possesses and City of Chicago, but faced with the rigid restrictions from the University can exercise the following powets and no othets: of Dillon's Rule, the Ilinois Constitutional Conven- of Texas. First, those gtanted in express words; second, tion delegates in 1970 added a home rule provision to those necessarily or fairly implied in or incident the new state constitution. The new provision granted to the powers expressly graured; third, those es- He resides with his significant authority to certain types of cities and villages sential to the declared objects and purposes of family in the Hyde through the creation of home rule units. Once a Park neighborhood the corporation-not simply convenient but in- municipality became a home rule unit, the state of Chicago. dispensable. Any fair, reasonable doubt concern- constitution gave local governments a large degree ing the existence of power is resolved by the of control over its "local government and affairs," The author wishes to courts against the corporation, and the power is including the powers to tax, to license, and to incur denied. thank Chapman and debt. Under the i 970 Constitution, local government Cutler LLP summer units in Ilinois can gain home rule status in two The Court's opinion and the temporary resolution associate Kelly Pender- ways. First, any Ilinois county with an elected chief of the state-ciry conflict had a chilling effect on local gast for her research executive offcer (currently, this is only Cook County), authorities.
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