Today the Liberty Justice Center celebrates a significant victory in Glennon v. Johnson after Bally’s Corporation announced a revised public offering for its Chicago casino project that no longer illegal discriminates on the basis of race or gender. In a new securities filing dated April 22, Bally’s finally removed the requirement that purchasers be either a woman or minority. This success now means that the project is open to the people of Chicago without regard to race or sex.
The case began on January 30, when the Liberty Justice Center filed a lawsuit against Mayor Brandon Johnson, the City of Chicago, Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Irvin, Bally’s Chicago Operating Company, and several members of the Illinois Gaming Board. The lawsuit challenged Bally’s original public offering, which included explicit race-based and sex-based quotas imposed by the City of Chicago and State of Illinois on the city’s first full scale casino project. Under the Host Community Agreement (HCA) between the city and Bally’s, the project was required to meet a quota of 25% minority ownership, with “minority” defined as women or racial minorities.
To comply, Bally’s registered an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of 10,000 shares, available only to investors who met the city’s definition of “minority.” Illinois resident and would-be investor Mark Glennon was excluded from participating in the offering specifically because he did not meet the race or sex criteria. The Liberty Justice Center filed suit on his behalf, arguing that the city’s requirements violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and federal anti-discrimination laws.
In response to the lawsuit and regulatory concerns, Bally’s has now restructured its offering to open investment to a broader pool, giving preference instead to City of Chicago and Illinois residents, but without explicit reference to race or gender.
Bally’s Chairman Soo Kim told Crain’s Chicago Business, “We want to make the offering go forward and do as we said we were going to do. We think this is a reasonable solution to get there.” Kim also explained, “We’re saying to the state of Illinois and Chicago (that) we understand what the policy goals were for these hard and fast (minority) rules, but
we’re going to drop that in our federal engagement, because it’s not working.” Instead, Bally’s now plans to offer shares to the public on a race-neutral basis.
The revised IPO directly addresses the concerns brought to the forefront by the Liberty Justice Center in filing Glennon v. Johnson and is a win for equal opportunity in public offerings.
“No one should be excluded from participating in our economy on the basis of their race or sex” said Reilly Stephens, Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center. “We are glad to see Bally’s new offering allows the people of Chicago to invest in one of the city’s premier projects without discrimination or exclusion.”
The Liberty Justice Center argued that Chicago’s government violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. With the revised IPO, LJC’s objective of removing discriminatory provisions from the public project has been met. The next steps forward will include formal dismissal of the case and continued advocacy for equal protection under the law.
Legal filings in Glennon v. Johnson are available here.