The Illinois Supreme Court has announced that opinions in two cases addressing public employee pensions, Kanerva v. Weems and People ex rel. Madigan v. Burge, will be filed tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m.  With the Governor having signed a comprehensive state pension reform act only eight months ago, the opinions – Kanerva in particular – might provide a first look at how the Court will approach claims that pension reform violates the Pension Clause of the state constitution.

The issues presented are:

Kanerva: Do the 2012 amendments to the State Employee Insurance Act, 5 ILCS 375/1, violate (1) the Pension Protection Clause, Ill. Const. Art. XIII, Section 5; (2) the Contracts Impairment Clause, Ill. Const. Art. I, Section 16; (3) separation of powers; or (4) the State Lawsuit Immunity Act, 745 ILCS 5/1?

Burge: May the Attorney General challenge the actions of the Police Pension Board through a separate lawsuit in the Circuit Court, or are the Board’s actions subject to review only by routine administrative review?

Our summary of the facts and underlying court opinions in Kanerva is here. Our report on the oral argument is here. Our preview of Burge is here, and our report on that oral argument is here.

As of tomorrow, Kanerva will have been pending for 288 days since oral argument. Burge has been pending for 162 days. In 2013, the average days from argument to decision for unanimous decisions was 103.7 days. Non-unanimous decisions averaged 185.79 days under submission.

We’ll be back tomorrow afternoon with our first thoughts on the decisions.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Simon Cunningham (no changes).