Page 20 - December 2020

On to the Supreme Court
On Nov. 11, on behalf of Lodge 7, my partners Bri- an Hlavin and Patrick Ryan filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS). We want them to overturn the Illinois Supreme Court’s recent decision finding that public poli- cy warranted vacating the award of Arbitrator Roumell — which found that the City failed
to destroy records pursuant to Section 8.4 of
the collective bargaining agreement. Sim-
ply put, a petition for writ of certiorari is a
request for SCOTUS to hear the case. SCOTUS generally denies 94 percent of attorney-submitted cases, so at least there’s a chance.
A little bit about SCOTUS first. The highest court in the land consists of the chief justice of the United States (currently John Roberts) and eight associate justices: at the moment, Clarence Thomas, Stephen Breyer, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and, the most recent, Amy Coney Barrett. The president of the United States has the power to nominate the justices, who in turn are either confirmed or re- jected by the Senate. Once appointed, they retain the position for life. A nice gig, if you can get it.
Although one hears a great deal of rhetoric on how the passage of laws may impact our lives, the truth is that the nine SCOTUS justices do more to shape our laws than we think. The best-known power of the court is judicial review, or the ability to declare a legislative or executive act to be in violation of the Constitution. With a single decision, a majority of justices can decide wheth- er laws dealing with free speech under the First Amendment,
or those that impact public education, the Second Amendment right to bear arms, or the operations of unions, will remain intact or be stricken. Qualified immunity, just one issue critical to all law enforcement officers across the country, may be an issue that SCOTUS takes up in the near future.
SCOTUS’s importance in our constitutional system of government cannot be overstated. Since the court has the power of judicial review, it plays a significant part in ensuring that each branch of government recognizes the limits of its own power. Also, the Supreme Court is the highest court in the land; no other appeals or reviews are available to a litigant. Further, the Supreme Court pro- tects civil rights and liberties by striking down laws that vio- late the Constitution. Finally, it sets appropriate limits on dem- ocratic government by ensuring that popular majorities cannot pass laws that harm and/or take undue advantage of unpopular minorities. In essence, it seeks to make certain that the ever- changing views of a majority do not undermine our fundamental
values and principals.
Turning to our case: In our petition, we asserted that the Illi-
nois Supreme Court is undermining the ability of public-sector employees to rely upon their contractual grievance and arbitra- tion procedures. Although this action originated under a pub- lic-sector collective bargaining agreement under Illinois law, the rationale behind the decision of the Illinois Supreme Court im- plicates and undermines federal policies favoring enforcement of arbitration provisions as a matter of contract law, as established by SCOTUS’s decisions in several seminal cases, including W.R. Grace & Co. v. Local Union No. 759; United Paperworkers Interna-
PAT FIORETTO
20 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ DECEMBER 2020