Group suing to halt Obama Center suffers setback
District judge rules against it; appellate court the next stop
The long-waged fight by the group Protect Our Parks to halt construction of former President Barack Obama’s Jackson Park museum and campus has reached the end of the road in the federal district courts.
But the plaintiffs plan to take the case to the appellate level, continuing a yearslong battle against a project that is well underway.
On Thursday U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey entered a final judgment in favor of the defendants — including the Obama Foundation, several federal agencies and the city of Chicago — in the Northern District of Illinois.
The Obama Foundation celebrated the decision as a milestone, declaring the decision “a victory for all who have worked alongside us on this journey to bring investment and opportunity to Chicago’s South Side.
“With its decision today, the court is making it possible for us to deliver on our commitment to create a world-class destination that will attract people from around the globe and stand as a reminder to all — but particularly young people in Chicago — that individuals have the power to be the change they want to see.”
But Richard Epstein, an attorney for Protect Our Parks, said his team supported the decision, which essentially cuts off their so-far-unsuccessful endeavor at the district level and allows it to take arguments up to the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
“We don’t want to run a trial on this,” Epstein said. “We know what the outcome’s gonna be: Judge Blakey won’t vote for us when there have already been three decisions against us.”
POP has long contended it doesn’t oppose a South
Side location for Obama’s presidential center. But it’s argued the Jackson Park plan would result in the clear-cutting of mature trees, disruption of annual bird migratory flights and the closing of four main South Side thoroughfares.
It proposed locating west of Jackson Park, near Washington Park, instead.
But the group’s legal efforts to stop the center, which date to 2018, have been unsuccessful. And while the court battle contributed to a groundbreaking delay, construction has been going on for more than a year. Trees have been cleared, roadway closures are in effect and concrete structures are rising from the ground.
The center is expected to debut in 2025 and cost about $700 million to construct, with another $90 million to prepare exhibits and cover the center’s opening, plus
$40 million for the first year’s operations.
Financial disclosures show the Obama Foundation paid the law firm Sidley Austin $6.2 million between 2018 and 2021. The vast majority related to the ongoing litigation with POP, a foundation official said.
Michael Rachlis, another attorney for Protect Our Parks, says the latest ruling allows the group to appeal the three major pieces of their arguments in a new venue, though on a more limited basis.
Among the issues they hope the appeals court will review: whether the public trust was violated by turning over the use of public property for the foundation’s private gain; whether the foundation fulfilled the financial terms of the master agreement that allowed parkland to be transferred to them from the city; and whether federal reviews of
the impact on roadways and the historic park were sufficient.
In court filings POP argued federal reviews that allowed construction to go forward on protected parklands were improperly split and deficient, and failed to identify possible alternatives to Jackson Park.
Protect Our Parks also argued the city “delegated all material decision-making authority to the Obama Foundation,” essentially rubber-stamping an agreement that turned over parkland to a private entity for 99 years at a cost of just $10.
Blakey had dismissed those claims in a March ruling, writing that the city “did not abdicate control or ownership of the OPC site to the Obama Foundation” and that state law confirms that presidential centers confer a public benefit because they “serve valuable public purposes, including
... furthering human knowledge and understanding, educating and inspiring the public, and expanding recreational and cultural resources and opportunities.”
Obama Foundation and city officials have argued construction would restore roadways to parkland, improve pedestrian and bicyclist access to the park and lakefront, introduce better biodiversity to the park, bring new amenities such as recreational facilities and a new Chicago Public Library branch to nearby residents and add needed economic development to the South Side.
If POP appeals, it will not impact ongoing construction or programming, the foundation said.
Epstein does not expect to have the case fully briefed until January, with arguments “as late as next spring,” meaning much more construction could take place in the meantime.
Rachlis said construction “is far from complete,” and the center’s opening is not a fait accompli. There is “much that can be gained and protected in the short term in Jackson Park,” including “several hundred” trees that haven’t been cut down, and roadwork that hasn’t yet begun.
“The integrity of the park itself has not been changed,” Rachlis said. “And even if more changes take place “there are remedies that can be put in place.”
Rachlis, who has largely been working on the case on a pro bono basis (Epstein, an emeritus professor at the University of Chicago, is working entirely pro bono), said the team also wants to set precedent for future environmental, community and park cases.