Ordinances Found to be a Valid Exercise of County’s Home Rule Powers
In Blanchard
v. Berrios, the independent inspector general of Cook County filed a
complaint to enforce a subpoena that the Office of the Independent Inspector
General (OIIG) sent to the Cook County Assessor. The circuit court
ordered the Assessor to respond to the subpoena. The Assessor then
appealed to the Illinois Appellate Court, arguing that it was unconstitutional
for the Cook County Board of Commissioners to enact ordinances granting the
OIIG subpoena power.
In finding the ordinances to be constitutional, the Illinois
Appellate Court noted that the Board’s ordinances were a valid exercise of its
home rule powers and that it was valid for the county to delegate it’s subpoena
power to the OIIG. The Illinois Appellate Court looked to City
of Chicago v. Stubhub, 2011 IL 111127, in which the Illinois Supreme Court
evaluated how to determine whether an ordinance exceeds home rule powers.
In Stubhub, the Illinois Supreme Court found that a county, as a home
rule unit, has all powers of a sovereign unless the General Assembly has
expressly limited those powers. The court noted that the Assessor failed
to identify any statutes in which the General Assembly had limited the subpoena
power of home rule entities. Further, just as the state is allowed to
delegate subpoena powers, so may a county.
Post Authored by Erin Baker, Ancel Glink
0 comments:
Post a Comment