Lisa Madigan may appeal pension case to U.S. Supreme Court

CAT Tracks Editor's Note:

Look, I'm a lowly retired Government teacher, but...

...when I went to school, the 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution (aka the "Reserved Powers"), like the other original nine amendments (aka the "Bill of Rights" were part of a "ratification deal" to assure states contemplating joining the new United States of America that THEY would be protected from the new United States of America!

Now, Lisa Madigan (and her daddy) want to use the amendment to save the state from itself...

...by breaking the contract (the PROMISE) that the State of Illinois made with it's workers?

The Illinois Supreme Court already dismissed the state's claim of "using police powers due to an emergency/crisis situation" by ruling UNANIMOUSLY that the state had knowingly created the crisis itself!

That should end this discussion and cause the "powers that be" to move on and find a legal way to solve their self-created crisis and quit trying to make people who worked and earned pensions pay for the state's malfeasance.

The unions screamed for decades about what the State of Illinois was doing...

...more to the point NOT DOING, not making it's required contribution to the various pension funds. If Illinois had made those timely payments - back in the days of double-digit interest earning - the various pension funds would have taken in billions of dollars and wouldn't be in the nation's worst unfunded liability situation that it is today.

Oh, but NO!

The Illinois General Assembly chose to ignore the outcry of it's workers and use those billions of dollars to fund whatever whim caught their fancy.

But, now, Speaker of the Illinois House Michael Madigan (and his IL Attorney General daughter) want the federal government to step in and take away it's power - it's 'reserve power' to negotiate with it's own workers.

That is NOT what the United States Bill of Rights was designed to do!!!

Bears repeating:

The Reserved Powers were attached to the original constitution to assure the states that they would be protected FROM the federal government, NOT that the states would be protected from themselves.

The Illinois Supreme Court, by unanimous decision, said "HELL NO!" to the General Assembly's attempt to renege on the promise it freely made.