Court Opinion

ID: 9713924
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:26:25.566655+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:21.876533
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE KARNS, specially concurring: While I concur in the result reached in the majority opinion, I have considerable doubt that article 7, section 10(a) of the Illinois Constitution of 1970 has any bearing on the issue before us in this case. Section 10 of the Constitution of 1970 is entitled “Intergovernmental Cooperation.” During the closing hours of the constitutional convention (see 5 Record of Proceedings, Sixth Illinois Constitutional Convention 4444 — 46), the penultimate sentence was added to section 10(a). This sentence empowers school districts and non-home-rule units of local government to exercise certain powers they might not otherwise possess in contracting and associating with “individuals, associations, and corporations in any manner not prohibited by law or by ordinance.” Admittedly, this would appear to have no necessary relationship to governmental cooperation, but considering the discussion during the debates of the convention when this language was added to section 10, some caveat should be expressed whether it was intended to affect the power of a school district to contract away its power to employ and discharge its own employees.