CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge says he will announce in December a trial date in the lawsuit challenging construction of the Obama Presidential Center in a Chicago park.
The Chicago Tribune reports that at a hearing on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey told attorneys he won’t let the case linger. But his comment that discovery in the case should continue during the next few months suggests that any trial is at the least several months away. He says he will announce a trial date on Dec. 5.
In its lawsuit, an environmental group called Protect Our Parks contends that the center shouldn’t be built in Jackson Park on the South Side because the transfer of parkland to a private entity violates state law. The city says there is no such violation.
And the folk bringing the lawsuit aren’t at all motivated by racist bigotry. No, not at all.
I’ll bet the deplorables just love the idea of an Obama lawsuit, while missing the point entirely…
Another being an attorney I may not understand this clearly but it would seem to me there is or isn’t such a law… why would it take months of discovery?
They are treading cautiously because of the proposed Luca’s Museum that was slated for a lakefront location on public parkland. While the Obama Center is also on public parkland, it is not on the lakefront, so likely not subject to the Public Trust doctrine that quashed Luca’s.
Protect Our Parks appears to have started as an attempt to protect Lincoln Park from an elite private school. They also seem to trying to protect a park in Indiana from private use. As much as the deplorables love this, it may actually be motivated by do-goodery and not by racist bigotry. Others may know more than me.
Jackson Park seems like a logical place for the center. It is near the University of Chicago which would be good for researcher. It is also near poor black areas which would be good for community outreach. However, it would be sad to cannibalize the park for a big presidential center. I have no good answers here.