Opinion ID: 2070736
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Propriety of Supreme Court Review

Text: Plaintiffs argue that, due to certain changes in the City's plans for terminal and ground transportation improvements at O'Hare, this case presently rests upon an uncertain factual foundation and therefore is inappropriate for review at this time. Specifically, plaintiffs point to a series of news reports suggesting that, since the appellate court filed its judgment in this case, the City has announced that the World Gateway Project, which encompasses many of the terminal and ground transportation projects at issue in this case, may not go forward as planned. According to plaintiffs, in light of the uncertainty concerning which, if any, portions of the World Gateway Project remain viable, any decision by this court at this time would be purely advisory. Plaintiffs therefore urge this court to dismiss this appeal and remand the cause for additional fact finding in accordance with the appellate court's opinion. We decline plaintiffs' invitation to dismiss this appeal. First, the issue in this case has never turned upon knowing with certainty what terminal and ground transportation improvements the City seeks to undertake at O'Hare. Plaintiffs' complaint did not seek to enjoin only those terminal and ground transportation improvements at O'Hare that are part of the World Gateway Project, nor did plaintiffs' complaint identify with any degree of specificity what projects they were seeking to enjoin. Rather, plaintiffs' complaint sought to enjoin the City from constructing current and proposed alterations at O'Hare, whatever those alterations might prove to be. Second, in the course of this appeal, this court allowed the City to file an affidavit from John F. Harris, the first deputy commissioner of the City of Chicago department of aviation. In that affidavit, Harris testifies that, notwithstanding the World Gateway Project's uncertain future, the City still intends to undertake substantial improvement projects at O'Hare without seeking IDOT's approval, including the construction of a new terminal and the extension of an existing concourse. Thus, we know with certainty that the City still intends to undertake at least some of the improvements that plaintiffs' complaint seeks to enjoin.' Finally, if plaintiffs genuinely believed that the City no longer intends to undertake the terminal and ground transportation improvements targeted in plaintiffs' complaint, then plaintiffs need only dismiss their complaint to end this litigation. The fact that plaintiffs are instead seeking a dismissal of this appealand with it the preservation of the appellate court's decision on the merits-7-suggests that plaintiffs fully expect the City to proceed with at least some terminal and ground transportation improvements at O'Hare. For, these reasons, we decline to dismiss this appeal.