United States Seventh Circuit

In plaintiffs' lawsuit against various Illinois state officials arising from termination of their employment with the Illinois Department of Corrections after a change in the governing party, district court's summary judgment in favor of the defendants is affirmed where: 1) summary judgment on the First Amendment claims was appropriate as the witness's statement that voting records were accessed and used in certain personnel decision is inadmissible hearsay; and 2) due process claims were properly rejected as plaintiffs have no evidence of improper motive in interpreting personnel rules to support their claim that only they or only Republican employees were singled out for the new personnel policy.

Appellate Information

• Argued 01/09/2009
• Decided 10/09/2009
• Published 10/09/2009

Judges

• ROVNER, Circuit Judge., Before MANION, ROVNER and SYKES, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Seventh Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Howard W. Feldman (argued), Feldman, Wasser, Draper & Benson, Springfield, IL, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Debrai G. Haile, Laner, Muchin, Dombrow, Becker, Levin & Tominberg, Chicago, IL, Mary Ellen Welsh (argued), Brian F. Barov, Office of Attorney General, Civil Appeals Div., Chicago, IL, for Defendants-Appellees.