The New Year Countdown – Amendments Relating to Public Safety and more...

The New Year Countdown – Amendments Relating to Public Safety

This year, Municipal Minute will be counting down to the New Year with updates on legislation that will be effective starting on January 1, 2026. Three "public safety" related Acts are summarized below:

Public Act 104-0158 amends the Illinois Police Training Act to require applicants for law enforcement positions at law enforcement agencies to direct all previous employers to produce employment records including performance history, investigations, examinations, and civil and criminal background investigation materials. Previous employers receiving a request for an applicant’s records must furnish a complete file of these records and, with limited exceptions for financial and personal identifying information, cannot make redactions.

Any previous employer that receives a request for these records must produce the records within 14 days of the request. If additional time is required, a 14-day extension may be requested. The Act provides a sample form for the consent and release for background investigation.

Public Act 104-0097 amends the Illinois Municipal Code and Counties Code to authorize municipalities and counties to use utility poles or public rights-of-way for public safety purposes, including, but not limited to, the placement of public safety equipment. This equipment cannot be located on or interfere with electric distribution systems, worker safety zones, or electric supply zones. All use of public safety equipment in these areas must comply with applicable codes or regulations that concern public safety.

Under this Act, a state agency or unit of local government may, by rule, ordinance, or resolution, create a permitting process to allow a utility pole or right-of-way to be used. However, any fee charged by the owner of the pole or right-of-way must be at the lowest rate charged and cannot exceed the owner’s costs.

Public Act 104-0364 amends the Interstate Mutual Emergency Aid Act. The Interstate Mutual Emergency Aid Act helps to extend a jurisdiction’s emergency response capabilities by allowing local government bodies to enter into a mutual aid agreement with units of government from another state. In this new amendment, any public safety agency, including fire departments, municipal police departments, and emergency medical response services, or public contractors of any such agency, may provide assistance to any other public safety agency in the state or in a bordering state at the time of a natural disaster.

Post authored by Alexis Carter, Ancel Glink

The New Year Countdown – Illinois Student and Equity Act Expansion

This year, Municipal Minute will be counting down to the New Year with updates on legislation that will be effective starting on January 1, 2026.

The Retention of Illinois Students and Equity Act provides that students who are Illinois residents and are not eligible for federal financial assistance (such as certain undocumented students and transgender students) are eligible to apply for all forms of state financial aid. Public Act 104-0164 was passed to expand student eligibility to include assistance, aid, or benefits offered by units of local government. These students are now eligible to apply for assistance programs provided by local governments.

Post authored by Alexis Carter, Ancel Glink

The New Year Countdown – Libraries Required to Stock Opioid Antagonists

This year, Municipal Minute will be counting down to the New Year with updates on legislation that will be effective starting on January 1, 2026.

Back in June, we reported on House Bill 1910, which amends the Local Library Act to require “libraries open to the public” to maintain a supply of approved “opioid antagonists,” such as Naloxone (Narcan), for use in assisting individuals experiencing an opioid overdose. On August 1, 2025, the Governor signed this bill into law as P.A. 104-0056, which will become effective on January 1, 2026.

Under this law, libraries created under the Local Library Act must take all reasonable steps to ensure that, during operating hours, there is at least one person present who has received training in how to recognize and respond to an opioid overdose. Library personnel may administer an opioid antagonist to any person who they believe is experiencing an overdose on library property or at a library-sponsored event. Libraries and library personnel are immune from claims related to the administration of an opioid antagonist, except in situations where they engage in willful or wanton misconduct.

Libraries interested in learning more about Public Act 104-0056 can visit the website of the Reaching Across Illinois Library System, which has a memo regarding the Act and its implications, authored by our very own Julie Tappendorf and Erin Monforti.

Post authored by Alexis Carter, Ancel Glink

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Court Dismisses Lawsuit Challenging Validity of Constitutional Amendment Election

In a recent election contest lawsuit, an Illinois Appellate Court upheld the dismissal of a challenge to a 2022 constitutional amendment election. Weckbacher, et al. v. Watson, et al.

After a constitutional amendment was passed by Illinois voters at the 2022 general election (the Workers Rights Amendment that incorporated employee rights to collectively organize and bargain into Article I of the Illinois constitution), a group of plaintiffs sued the State Board of Elections (Board) to invalidate the election. Plaintiffs’ lawsuit argued the ballot used in the election, and approved by the Board, was illegal because it did not print the text of the constitutional amendment, was not labeled as a “Constitutional Ballot,” and was not provided to voters as a separate ballot from the “Official Ballot” containing the names of candidates for elected office. Based on these alleged ballot issues, the plaintiffs sought a judicial declaration that the ballot used for the constitutional amendment was illegal, and that the election be declared invalid, null, and void.

The Board moved to dismiss the lawsuit arguing that since plaintiffs failed to claim how any irregularities would have changed the election results or allowed a court to declare the election void, the lawsuit was deficient. The Board also argued the circuit court lacked authority over the case because plaintiffs did not follow the state law governing election contests for constitutional amendments. The circuit court ruled for the Board and dismissed the lawsuit after finding the plaintiffs’ claims were not timely and the court lacked authority over the lawsuit.

On appeal, the Appellate Court upheld the dismissal of the lawsuit. First, the Appellate Court agreed that the circuit court lacked authority over the case by noting that circuit courts in Illinois can only hear election contest cases as provided for by the Illinois Election Code. Under Illinois law, there are limited avenues for a plaintiff to challenge the results of an election. While the Election Code authorizes claims challenging the results of a constitutional amendment election because of alleged irregularities in the conduct of the election, the code does not allow claims challenging the validity of an election. As the plaintiffs’ lawsuit challenged the Board’s administrative actions in certifying the constitutional amendment ballot and did not challenge the actual results of the constitutional amendment election, the Appellate Court agreed that the circuit court lacked authority over the plaintiff’s lawsuit.

Second, the Appellate Court agreed that the plaintiffs failed to state a proper claim for declaratory relief on the validity of the constitutional amendment ballot. In this case, over a year had passed since the Board certified the constitutional amendment to the ballot and the election results were finalized. As the constitutional amendment election was over by the time plaintiffs filed their lawsuit, the Appellate Court determined there was no longer an ongoing dispute between the plaintiffs and the Board and agreed that the lawsuit failed to state a claim for declaratory relief.

Post Authored by Tyler Smith, Ancel Glink

Supreme Court Declines to Hear Appeal in Library Book Removal Case

Earlier this year, we reported on a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals case that dismissed a First Amendment lawsuit brought by library patrons against a Texas library after the library removed 17 books because of their content. Two of the books the library removed were "Larry the Farting Leprechaun" by Jane Bexley and "My Butt is so Noisy!" by Dawn McMillian. The patrons argued that the library's removal of books based on their content violated their right to receive information under the free speech clause. The district court agreed and issued a preliminary injunction against the library, but the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, holding that the "right of information" does not apply to a public library's decision to remove books because the library's collection decisions are government speech and not subject to free speech protections under the First Amendment. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals also rejected the patron's claims that the library's removal of the books constituted "book banning" because the patrons could still purchase the books from a bookstore or online.

The case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and on December 8, 2025, the Supreme Court declined to hear the library patron's appeal, allowing the Fifth Circuit's decision to dismiss the First Amendment lawsuit to stand.

The Fifth Circuit's decision was a departure from the U.S. Supreme Court's 1982 decision in Island Trees Union Free Sch. Dist. v. Pico, which held that the First Amendment restricts libraries from removing books simply because they dislike the ideas in those books.

The American Library Association (ALA) had filed an "amicus" (friend of the court) brief in the case urging the Supreme Court to hear the library patron's appeal of the Fifth Circuit's decision. You can read the ALA's take on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to deny certiorari, which allows the Fifth Circuit's decision to stand here.

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