U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
Recent News About U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
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7th Circuit: Title VII sex discrimination employment protections 'drop out' vs religious schools' religious freedoms
A federal appeals panel said an Indianapolis Catholic high school was within its legal rights under the Constitution and federal law to fire a female guidance counselor and school administrator who married another woman -
Lawsuit revived vs Loyola Chicago over refusal to refund tuition, fees, after Covid shutdown
A federal appeals panel says students can press their claim Loyola University Chicago's decision to close the campus and move instruction online in March 2020 breached an 'implied contract' for in-person instruction and access to campus in return for $22,000 per semester tuition -
Seventh Circuit finds Belleville lawyer suffered no injury in Uconnect case; Yandle to determine if plaintiffs owe defendants $100K for transcripts
CHICAGO – Belleville lawyer Brian Flynn suffered no injury when he bought a Jeep with an entertainment system like one that experts used to seize control of a vehicle, U.S. Seventh Circuit appellate judges ruled on July 14. -
Appeals panel split on Illinois' obligation to force timely Medicaid payments to hospitals
A lawsuit from cash-strapped safety net hospital, St. Anthony Hospital in Chicago, alleges systemic failure to pay on time, leading to dire financial straits -
How 'concrete' an injury is 'emotional distress?' Federal appeals court grapples with question
A group of four federal appeals court judges says the Seventh Circuit was wrong to toss out a woman's class action claims that a creditor should pay for inflicting "emotional distress" when it sought to collect a "zombie debt" -
SCOTUS: Airline ramp workers exempt from arbitration mandates, more class actions vs transportation employers inbound?
The U.S. Supreme Court says Southwest Airlines ramp workers are involved in interstate commerce, and should be given exemption under federal law from mandatory arbitration clauses in their employment contracts -
Plaintiff who won $2 million in Rudolf’s court and lost it in Gilbert’s court seeks Seventh Circuit review
CHICAGO – Tommy Harris, who won more than $2 million in the court of Circuit Judge Heinz Rudolf and lost it in the court of Senior U.S. District Judge Phil Gilbert, aims to win it back on appeal. -
Appeals court: Pritzker 2020 biz closure orders, alone, not enough to allow biz owners to sue for illegal takings
The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals rejected yet another challenge to Pritzker's long-running use of emergency executive powers amid the Covid pandemic, saying plaintiffs didn't provide enough to back their sprawling claims that Pritzker trampled their rights -
'Astronomical damages:' IL high court ponders how many fingerprints should be worth up to $5K each under IL biometrics law
With potentially billions of dollars on the line, justices on the state high court must answer the question of how many repeated scans of fingerprints and other biometric data should cost Illinois employers $1,000-$5,000 each under the state's stringent Biometric Information Privacy Act -
Judge: Scans of photos can equal facial recognition, may be barred by IL biometrics law; Suit vs Onfido continues
Illinois man alleges Onfido didn't adequately inform about use of photographs, facial scans -
Reform watchdog: Fed court can look into state's hiring of unqualified COVID lab techs, contrary to Pritzker's claim
A state hiring watchdog is contending he has not conceded, as "misconstrued" by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, that two dozen allegedly unqualified temporary lab techs hired to help with Covid-19 tests, are outside the watchdog's federal mandate because they were hired off the street rather than promoted from within government. -
Appeals panel says arbitrator will decide if minor can sign contract, lead IL biometrics class action vs Snapchat
Snapchat facing class action over user face scans led by a minor, whose lawyers are trying to keep the dispute in court, and out of arbitration -
Seventh Circuit upholds dismissal of syringe price class action
CHICAGO – U.S. Seventh Circuit appellate judges found Chief District Judge Nancy Rosenstengel correctly dismissed a class action complaint over the price of syringes. -
Appeals panel: State Farm has no obligation to cover restaurant's losses from Pritzker's COVID closure orders
While the restaurant only closed because the governor ordered them to do so, it was the COVID-19 virus that actually caused the losses, so the steep losses the businesses suffered aren't physical losses covered by insurance policies, state appeals judges ruled -
Pritzker fighting to lift federal monitoring for political patronage hiring, system used by Madigan to boost power
Even as he talked with investigators in the federal prosecution that led to the indictment of former House Speaker Michael Madigan, Gov. JB Pritzker has been fighting to lift federal oversight of state hiring practices, a system exploited by Madigan to cement his grip on power statewide -
Union workers' biometrics claims belong in arbitration, not in class actions, because of CBA: Appeals panel
A Cook County judge had ruled workers' claims over fingerprint scans were separate from their union contract. But a state appeals panel said they would not break with a decision set by a federal appeals court on the question. -
Judges say Dems' partisan power grab in drawing new maps didn't also violate Voting Rights Act
Democrat mapmakers were "motivated by partisan political considerations," a panel of federal judges said, so it doesn't matter that they divided Latino and Black populations up among various districts, rather than maximizing majority minority districts -
Federal appeals court agrees: No insurance coverage for income lost by many businesses shut down by Pritzker COVID orders
Cincinnati Insurance argued the COVID virus didn't physically alter the covered buildings, so there should be no coverage, even though the businesses were forced by Gov. JB Pritzker to reduce operations amid the onset of the pandemic -
You want my fingerprint? Here’s a finger!
Last year, some in state Facebook users invoked the Illinois biometrics privacy law and sued FB, claiming it violated their privacy rights by not obtaining permission from them in advance for its photo tagging system. -
IL biometrics class actions over worker fingerprint scans can have 5-year statute of limitations, appeals court rules
Illinois employers seeking to limit the reach of the law that has spawned thousands of potentially ruinous class action lawsuits had sought to restrict class actions under the state's biometrics law to a one year time limit for reckoning violations. Justices said that limit only applies to certain sections of the law.