Illinois Wins Dismissal of Challenge to ‘Captive Audience’ Ban

A First Amendment challenge to Illinois’ ban on mandatory workplace meetings covering politics, religion, and labor unions can’t clear the legal hurdles to move forward, a federal judge ruled.

Judge Franklin U. Valderrama granted an Illinois state official’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The judge agreed with Jane R. Flanagan, the director of the Illinois Department of Labor, that the groups contesting the state’s ban on captive audience meetings failed to overcome her sovereign immunity, as the law didn’t give Flanagan direct authority to enforce it and that even ...