Supreme Court of Illinois

Summary judgment for plaintiffs holding that Public Act 94-804 which imposes for a two year period a 3 per cent surchanrge on the four riverboat casinos in Illinois that had adjusted gross receipts of over 200 million dollars, while the remaining five riverboats which had AGRs below 200 million were not subject to the surcharge as unconstitutional is reversed where: 1) the uniformity clause is not violated because there is a rational relationship between the classification and the object of the legislation and plaintiffs have failed to show that teh classification is arbitrary and unreasonable; 2) the Act does not violate article VII, section 1 because the plaintiffs have failed to show that the legislative findings in the act are evasive or that the purpose of the act is to primarily benefit private interests; and 3) the act is not unconstitutionally retroactive.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/05/2008
• Published 06/05/2008

Judges

Court

• Supreme Court of Illinois

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Lisa Madigan, Attorney General, Springfield (Michael A. Scodro, Solicitor General, Jerald S. Post, Assistant Attorney General, Chicago, of counsel), for appellants., William J. McKenna, Jr., Martin J. Bishop, David A. Moore, of Foley & Lardner LLP, Edward M. White, Michael J. Murray, of Carey, Filter, White & Boland, Chicago, for intervenor-appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Michelle Odorizzi, Hugh R. McCombs, Michael K. Forde, of Mayer Brown LLP, Chicago, for appellees.