On October 8, the Liberty Justice Center filed a lawsuit on behalf of four Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) members, demanding that CTU produce an audit after failing to do so for four years.
Under CTU’s Constitution and Bylaws, Article VI, Section 1(d), the union is required to “furnish an audited report of the Union which shall be printed in the Union’s publication.” However, CTU has failed to meet this obligation since it published an audit only covering the first half of 2019.
“CTU members deserve to know where their money is going. After four years of silence, it’s time for transparency,” said plaintiff Phillip Weiss, who has been a CTU member since 1998. “This lawsuit isn’t just about us—it’s about the more than 25,000 educators across Chicago who rely on the union to uphold its commitments.”
The Liberty Justice Center previously sent a demand letter to the union on behalf of several anonymous CTU members, offering the opportunity to comply and avoid litigation. A week after receiving the letter, CTU’s lawyers requested the identity of the plaintiffs, purportedly to confirm their union membership.
Instead, the union used this information to launch into intimidation tactics to suppress dissent and distract from the core issue: its failure to provide financial transparency to members. On October 8, CTU President Stacy Davis Gates attempted to publicly shame the plaintiffs on a member-wide call by singling them out by name and invoking “Project 2025” to falsely frame their request for transparency as part of a “right-wing” effort.
After CTU failed to provide the missing audits by the letter’s deadline, the Liberty Justice Center filed the lawsuit to compel the audits’ release.
“We are proud to stand with Chicago educators in their fight for accountability and transparency,” said Dean McGee, Senior Counsel for Educational Freedom at Liberty Justice Center. “CTU leadership must uphold its obligations to the teachers it represents.”
Weiss v. Chicago Teachers Union was filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County on October 8, 2024. The Liberty Justice Center is representing the members pro bono.
A copy of the Liberty Justice Center’s demand letter is available here.
Jeffrey M. Schwab serves as Senior Counsel and Interim Director of Litigation at the Liberty Justice Center, where he litigates cases to protect the rights to free speech, economic liberty, private property and other Constitutional rights in both federal and state courts across the country.
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