Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates
CHICAGO — A Cook County judge has refused another attempt by the politically powerful Chicago Teachers Union to bring an abrupt end to a lawsuit accusing them of violating their members' rights by refusing to release years' worth of financial audits, agreeing that the CTU's decision to post, under pressure, the specific audits at the heart of the case doesn't necessarily mean the union should be let off the hook to try again to withhold audits in the future.
On March 20, Cook County Circuit Judge David B. Atkins denied the motion by the CTU for summary judgment in their favor to close out the legal action.
Summary judgment is a ruling entered by a judge based on court hearings and written filings, after determining the evidence and proceedings strongly favor one party over the other, avoiding the need for a trial.
In the latest proceedings in the case, the CTU had attempted to pull the plug on the action by arguing the case was now moot and should not continue, because they had allegedly provided what the plaintiffs had claimed they were after in their lawsuit.
The plaintiffs, however, said the CTU shouldn't be allowed to walk away, without a potential court order or an agreement preventing them from committing the same alleged violations in the future.
The case landed in Cook County Circuit Court in October 2024, when attorneys from the nonprofit constitutional legal advocacy group the Liberty Justice Center, of Chicago, filed suit on behalf of a group of Chicago Public Schools teachers and staff, who are members of the CTU.
The lawsuit also named as defendants CTU President Stacy Davis Gates and CTU Financial Secretary Maria Moreno.
Named plaintiffs include Philip Weiss, identified as CPS social worker who has worked for CPS since 1998; Bridget Cuevas, identified as a CPS teacher since 2012; Rosemary Swearingen, a primary diverse learning teacher at CPS since 2001; and Kenneth Meracle, a CPS social studies teacher since 2017.
The lawsuit specifically accused the CTU of allegedly refusing to provide members with full audited annual financial reports, showing in full how the CTU is spending the money it collects from its more than 25,000 members.
The lawsuit asserts the CTU's contract and bylaws obligates the union to "furnish an audited report of the Union which shall be printed in the Union's publication" and made available to all union members.
However, since 2020, the CTU under Gates and Moreno failed to do so. At the time the lawsuit was filed, the most recent report listed financials for an audit that covered the union's revenue and spending for 2018 and the first half of 2019.
According to the complaint, union leadership further refused repeated requests from members for the reports and allegedly retaliated against the plaintiffs with threats and harassment, attempting to belittle their transparency requests as being "part of a 'right-wing' effort" associated with political organizations supporting President Donald Trump.
Gates and the CTU have emerged as central powerful figures in Chicago city politics, particularly following the election of CTU member Brandon Johnson as Chicago mayor.
According to published reports, the CTU and its allied teachers unions have emerged as the biggest spenders on Chicago politics, dropping millions into Chicago political campaigns in recent years.
That influence at City Hall allowed the CTU to essentially oust former Chicago schools superintendent Pedro Martinez and land a new collective bargaining agreement, estimated to cost taxpayers more than $1.5 billion through 2028.
However, as the CTU has increased its lock on City Hall and attempted to push its influence further into Springfield and beyond, the lawsuit asserts union leadership has allegedly shirked its duties to its members for transparency in how the union is spending its funds.
In response to the lawsuit, CTU initially attempted to claim it wasn't obligated to publish the full audited reports, but only "self-prepared, summary reports."
Judge Atkins, however, rejected those arguments and refused to dismiss the lawsuit in the spring of 2025.
Later in 2025, CTU also came under fire from Congress, when Republican lawmakers threatened the CTU with subpoenas and other action over their lack of transparency.
Despite protestations that the demands were politically driven to support the lawsuit, the CTU eventually published the reports.
The union then moved in court to end the lawsuit, saying they had provided the plaintiffs with what they sought.
The LJC and their plaintiff clients, however, said the lawsuit wasn't only about securing those reports, but also to require the CTU to continue to live up to their contract and bylaws into the future.
In court, Judge Atkins sided with the plaintiffs, and ordered the case to now proceed to discovery, meaning the CTU could be forced to turn over financial information and other documents relevant to their case and their handling of union finances and member dues.
In his ruling, Atkins said he particularly agreed CTU can't close the door on the case at this point, because the union has still refused to concede it won't seek to again withhold the reports in the future.
"As Plaintiff argues ... Defendant (CTU) has not met its burden to show it is clear the alleged wrongful conduct will not recur, and Defendant maintains it is not obligated to provide full, unabridged audits," Atkins wrote.
Following the ruling, Sara Albrecht, chairman of the Liberty Justice Center released a statement, saying the court had ended CTU's attempt "to shut this case down before the facts could come out."
"The court saw through CTU’s effort to avoid scrutiny. Simply posting documents after being sued doesn’t erase legal obligations. With discovery now moving forward, we intend to get a full accounting of whether CTU has complied with its duties to its own members," Albrecht said.
