Chicago Daily Law Bulletin • 1st May 2019

A look at the state’s spending on legal services

An analysis of state spending on legal fees for the most recent fiscal year, cataloging about $30 million in spending spread among roughly 275 attorneys and firms. This story appeared as part of our annual Law Day special edition.

Chicago Daily Law Bulletin • 9th April 2019

Study examines state AGs’ ‘hidden nondefense’ playbook

As state attorneys general become more political, some are also undermining their own state laws. That’s the conclusion of a new article this month in the Fordham Law Review, finding top state lawyers around the country have couched “nondefenses” of their own statutes into partisan U.S. Supreme Court arguments.

Chicago Daily Law Bulletin • 1st May 2018

State high court faces smallest caseload in decades, data shows

Data analysis showing the number of appeals to the state Supreme Court reached a 20-year low in 2016, a surprising reversal after years in which lawyers predicted "a day of reckoning" due to a skyrocketing number of cases.

7th July 2017

After two-plus years of stalemate, state gets budget

Chronicling the end of the longest state budget impasse in contemporary American history.

Chicago Daily Law Bulletin • 1st May 2017

ERA fight still alive 35 years later

More than 30 years after it initially lost steam, the fight for an Equal Rights Amendment is back in the Land of Lincoln. State lawmakers have reintroduced a plan that would put the U.S. Constitution on track for a 28th Amendment that says equal rights can’t be denied “on account of sex.”

Chicago Daily Law Bulletin • 15th June 2016

Public supports new approach to redistricting

Using a compendium of statewide polls, this analysis probes public support of redistricting reform in Illinois. It found that between 63 and 70 percent of registered voters over a five-year span said they favored changes that would take political map-making out of the hands of legislators.

Chicago Lawyer Magazine • 1st June 2016

The business of being business-friendly

Rauner’s plea for entrepreneurship was, and still is, colored by the state budget abyss that’s been the hallmark of his time in government so far. To give a thumbnail sketch, he has repeatedly insisted on business-friendly changes to workers’ compensation and elements of tort reform as well as redistricting changes and term limits for legislators before he would approve a spending plan. But Democrats haven’t blinked.

Chicago Daily Law Bulletin • 22nd April 2016

A little help from my friends: amicus briefs a mosaic of interests

This story revolved around an original database of hundreds of Illinois Supreme Court decisions which included information about parties filing friend-of-the-court briefs in each case. It ran in a special "Law Day" edition of the newspaper and depicted state courts as an often-overlooked battleground for special-interest groups.

Chicago Daily Law Bulletin • 29th December 2015

Top court stayed united in 2015

While legislators and the governor fought vigorously in 2015, Illinois’ third branch of government did things a bit differently. More than three out of four high court opinions this year were made unanimously by all seven justices. That’s higher than 2013 and 2014, when each of the justices signed on to a single majority opinion in 44 percent and 72 percent of cases, respectively, according to a Daily Law Bulletin analysis.

Chicago Lawyer Magazine • 1st December 2015

Lloyd Karmeier: Person of the Year

Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lloyd Karmeier didn’t merely sit on the bench in 2015. He also sat at the epicenter of some of Illinois’ biggest legal and political fights.

Chicago Daily Law Bulletin • 22nd July 2015

In Blagojevich case, 'logrolling' arrives

Ask lawyers about “logrolling,” and you may hear about a new addition to the legal lexicon that could have staying power in American politics and political corruption cases.

Chicago Daily Law Bulletin • 27th April 2015

Rauner gets large law firm help

When Gov. Bruce Rauner sought the state’s highest executive office, plaintiff lawyers and other attorneys sent $1.4 million to support his opponent. But the Republican businessman had Big Law help.

Chicago Daily Law Bulletin • 29th October 2014

Law could be tested with Ebola scare

There are no confirmed cases of Ebola in Illinois. But judges across the state are prepared for the worst after a meeting last week in which many of them revisited plans for handling an outbreak of an infectious disease.

1st October 2014

Conjunction Functions

They’re two of the most seemingly benign words in the English language. Yet they produce one of the most maddening syntactical ambiguities in the legal universe — so perplexing that even one of the world’s foremost experts on the subject has trouble explaining the nuances of “and” and “or.”

Chicago Lawyer Magazine • 1st July 2014

Judging Ann: Callis tries to get to Washington

Win or lose, Ann Callis may have already made history this election cycle.

The Palm Beach Post • 4th November 2012

Felons, dead people are eligible voters on final Palm Beach County roll

A capstone investigation during a data-focused internship, this story focused on the notoriously messy Palm Beach County voter records. It found felons and deceased individuals were still eligible to cast ballots on the final voter roll before the 2012 general election. https://www.palmbeachpost.com/article/20121104/NEWS /812018933

The Palm Beach Post • 25th September 2012

Tax exemptions cost South Florida governments millions

Helped analyze tax-exempt parcels as well as their costs to local treasuries from a database supplied by the county property appraiser's office. Link to text is below. PDF copy uploaded for byline confirmation. https://www.palmbeachpost.com/article/20120925/NEWS/812024987

The Palm Beach Post • 13th August 2012

Abortions down 20 percent in Florida

Retrieved and analyzed abortion data from Florida state health agencies by county. Interviewed representatives from the agency for health care administration and the state health department to clarify numbers, as well as a demographer, and pro-life and pro-choice forces in order to flesh out and animate the trends.