Recently, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul urged the Illinois Supreme Court to confirm that the Illinois Human Right Act prohibits discrimination in public places throughout Illinois, including by youth sports teams.
Attorney General Raoul filed an amicus brief in support of HSPRD client Morgan Urso. Morgan, a LaGrange teen and mental health advocate, was banned from her hockey team after sharing her mental health struggle with her coach. HSPRD Partner Charlie Wysong represents Morgan in a lawsuit that seeks to ensure youth sports teams and organizations like Team Illinois and the Amateur Hockey Association of Illinois must follow the Illinois Human Rights Act.
In one of the first cases about public accommodations to reach the Illinois Supreme Court, the Attorney General emphasized how state law prohibits discrimination in public broadly and applies to private entities that lease places of public accommodation, membership organizations, and even organizations and places with pre-screening requirements. The Daily Law Bulletin covered the State’s position and litigation.
In the Illinois Supreme Court, Morgan was also supported by leading civil rights advocates from across the state. These advocates explained the long history of advocacy for broad civil rights protections and importance of having robust laws that prohibit discrimination in all manner of public places, and even online “places” in the modern age. The groups supporting Morgan’s case include Equip for Equality, Access Living, Center for Disability and Elder Law, Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, Legal Council for Health justice, Equality Illinois, the Shriver Center on Poverty Law, and Legal Aid Chicago.
The Illinois Supreme Court is expected to hear oral argument in the case later this fall.
