The HCBullet: The blog of the Attorneys at HCB

County’s Financial Resource Director May Be Terminated for Political Reasons Without Violating the First Amendment

December 5, 2018

In Bogart v. Vermilion County, et al., No. 18-1719 (Nov. 26, 2018), Nikki Bogart filed suit alleging that her rights under the First Amendment and Equal Protection clauses were violated when she was fired from her position as Financial Resources Director by the new County Board Chairman a few months after he took office. Bogart,…

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Seventh Circuit Awards Summary Judgment to Jail Officers in Intoxicated Detainee’s Fall from Upper Bunk

December 4, 2018

The Seventh Circuit reversed an Indiana District Court’s denial of summary judgment to two correctional officers on duty when a detainee fell from an upper bunk and ruled that the officers were entitled to qualified immunity on the claims regarding the fall. In Lovett v. Herbert, No. 17-1668 (7th Cir. Oct. 29, 2018), an arrestee…

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Inmate’s Suit Dismissed Under Res Judicata

December 4, 2018

The Honorable Richard Mills in the Central District of Illinois dismissed a federal civil rights lawsuit in favor of the Chief of Corrections, the Sheriff, and the County of the Kankakee in Shehadeh v. Downey, et al. Case No. 18-cv-3165 (C.D. Ill. October 22, 2018). Plaintiff, Jamal Shehadeh, a prisoner in federal custody, alleged that…

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County Jail Officials Vindicated from Inmate Wrongful Death Claim

December 4, 2018

In McCann v. Ogle County, No. 17-3139 (7th Cir. Nov. 30, 2018), the estate of an Ogle County inmate sued a county sheriff, jail superintendent and nurse and doctor, claiming that the inmate died while detained at the jail due to the over-prescription of methadone. The inmate was being detained in the jail after his…

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In Illinois, Local Governments Cannot Pass Their Own Ordinances Regulating Organized Labor

October 9, 2018

Int’l Union of Operating Eng’rs Local 399 v. Vill. of Lincolnshire, Nos. 17-1300 & 17-1325 (7th Cir. Sep. 28, 2018) The Village of Lincolnshire, in an attempt to curtail labor union power, passed an ordinance to (1) forbid the inclusion of union-security or hiring-hall provisions in collective bargaining agreements, (2) forbid the mandatory use of…

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