United States Seventh Circuit

District court's dismissal for failure to state a claim involving employment discrimination and retaliation case is affirmed where: 1) the allegations of the complaint set forth everything necessary to satisfy the affirmative defense, the statute of limitations may be raised in a motion to dismiss; 2) Illinois State Lawsuit Immunity Act leaves intact sovereign immunity for state law claims in federal court and plaintiff sued the employees of the State of Illinois rather than the State itself; and 3) plaintiff's state law claim for malicious prosecution does not fall under the exception to sovereign immunity for state officials who have acted in excess of their authority because there are no allegations that the defendant was acting for a purpose unrelated to his employment, as plaintiff chose to sue state employees rather than the state itself; 3) district court did not err in dismissing the complaint on grounds that it was too vague to provide notice to defendants of the due process claim.

Appellate Information

• Argued 06/04/2009
• Decided 08/20/2009
• Published 08/20/2009

Judges

• WOOD, Circuit Judge., Before FLAUM, WOOD, and TINDER, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Seventh Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Arvin Boddie, Attorney (argued), Chicago, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Mary Ellen Welsh, Attorney (argued), Office of the Attorney General, Chicago, IL, for Defendants-Appellees.