Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates
CHICAGO — A Cook County judge will allow the politically powerful Chicago Teachers Union end a lawsuit accusing them of violating their members' rights by refusing to provide access to financial audits, allegedly in breach of the union's own governing rules.
On Sept. 11, Cook County Circuit Judge David B. Atkins ruled he had no choice under the law and controlling legal precedent but to accept the CTU's assertions that the union's decision to post only summaries of the audits is in keeping with CTU bylaws requiring the union to publish "audited reports" for members concerning its finances.
"Here, the court cannot find the CTU President's interpretation arbitrary or unreasonable," Atkins wrote. "... It is clearly reasonable to interpret the 'audited report' to mean a more condensed, summary version of the auditor's report, rather than the full audit which is available for in-person inspection upon request."
Plaintiffs who had legally challenged CTU's practices, however, have vowed to appeal the ruling.
The decision means that, barring reversal on appeal, the CTU has won the court fight that began in October 2024.
At that time, attorneys from the Liberty Justice Center, of Chicago, filed suit against the CTU on behalf of a group of Chicago Public Schools educators and staff, who are also 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 notes under the CTU's contract and bylaws the union is obligated 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 lawsuit says the CTU has failed to do so. Prior to the lawsuit being filed, the plaintiffs said the CTU had most recently posted financials for an audit that covered the union's revenue and spending ending in the first half of 2019.
According to the complaint, the four plaintiffs repeatedly requested copies of newer audits, but the union ignored their requests.
According to the Liberty Justice Center, the plaintiffs had initially sent a demand to CTU leadership, again requesting the CTU release the missing audits to its members and notifying Gates and other CTU leaders of their intent to sue.
However, according to the Liberty Justice Center, CTU leadership instead chose to retaliate 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 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 of dollars into Chicago political campaigns in recent years.
Johnson has recently announced he will be seeking reelection as mayor. Gates and the CTU have indicated they will strongly support his reelection bid. Gates, for instance, attended Johnson's reelection campaign announcement in September.
As the CTU has increased its political machinations in recent years, the union also repeatedly ignored some of its members' demands for transparency concerning how it is spending their dues.
The lawsuit focuses on the refusal by Gates and the CTU to comply with members' requests for annual audited financial reports, which the plaintiffs have said amounts to a breach of the contract between CTU leadership and their union members.
The lawsuit seeks a court order requiring the CTU to comply with the audit rules and release its annual audits for the years 2019-2023. They are not seeking any money damages, other than attorney fees and the costs of bringing the lawsuit.
After CTU failed to dismiss the lawsuit, the union also came under pressure from Congress, when Republican lawmakers threatened the CTU with subpoenas and other action over their lack of transparency.
Faced with legal and congressional pressure, the CTU ultimately posted the missing audits for the years in dispute.
They then asked the judge to end the case, because they asserted they had complied with the demands.
The challengers asserted, however, that a real dispute remains over whether the CTU actually did anything improper. So, they asked for the judge to keep their case alive.
Atkins, however, said the CTU should be free to interpret its bylaws to allow them to use summary reports, if they wish.
In the meantime, the CTU has opened a new front in the legal war with the Liberty Justice Center and others they accuse of having worked together on a "coordinated smear campaign" against the CTU.
The CTU sued the Liberty Justice Center, formerly of Chicago and now based in Austin, Texas, together with the Chicago-based Illinois Policy Institute and the Institute's vice president of marketing Austin Berg.
The CTU, particularly, centered its lawsuit on contentions that the Institute, Liberty Justice Center, and other co-defendants have allegedly crossed the line by accusing the CTU of "cooking the books" in what critics of the CTU have contended amount to a bid to obscure how the union is spending member dues.
The CTU's lawsuit particularly took aim at social media posts and other statements from the Liberty Justice Center centered on the lawsuit the Liberty Justice Center lodged on behalf of CTU members over the previously missing financial audits.
Following the Sept. 11 ruling in the audit case, the CTU declared victory.
In social media posts on X, the CTU said: "For years, 'where's the audit?' was used as a weapon against our union. The court just answered that question."
They asserted in the posts that union members have "always been able to" inspect audits, despite the claims otherwise and despite the union's move to publish the missing reports in a bid to kill the lawsuit.
"At no point have the independent auditors CTU retained, nor the Department of Labor, nor the Republican-led Congressional Committee made any finding that any funds were missing, misallocated, or misused," the CTU said in the social media thread on X.
The union further used the social media thread to promote its own legal action against the Liberty Justice Center and the Illinois Policy Institute, which they asserted came "as a result of their repeated, public, and knowingly false accusations against CTU."
The Liberty Justice Center, however, vowed to appeal, maintaining a court ruling is needed to prevent the CTU from allegedly attempting to withhold financial information from members in the future.
In a statement to The Record, the Liberty Justice Center said:
"The Liberty Justice Center’s lawsuit achieved an important victory for Chicago Teachers Union members: CTU has now posted its complete financial audits on its member portal. But because CTU continues to deny that it must publish the complete audits each year, LJC is appealing to ensure that members do not have to file a new lawsuit every time CTU decides to withhold them.
"... Although the complete audits are currently available on CTU’s portal, CTU has not agreed that it must keep them there or publish complete audits in future years. Under the trial court’s ruling, CTU could return to publishing only selected summaries, forcing members to begin the same fight again.
"CTU members should not have to sue their union every year to obtain basic financial information. LJC’s appeal will seek to establish that CTU must honor its annual commitment to its members by publishing the complete audits consistently—not merely when litigation and outside scrutiny force it to do so."
