Judge gives go-ahead to lawsuit aimed at stopping Chicago Obama

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a lawsuit filed by an advocacy group hoping to halt construction of former President Barack Obama's $500 million presidential center on Chicago's South Side can proceed.

U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey, who was nominated to the federal bench by Obama in 2014, ruled that Protect Our Parks has standing to sue the city because it represents taxpayers with concerns that providing land in Jackson Park to the Obama center violates their due process rights. The judge indicated that he doesn't want the litigation to drag on, and that he'll limit any fact-gathering before the trial to 45 days.

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Protect Our Parks has accused the city of illegally transferring parkland to the private Obama Foundation, effectively "gifting" prized land to a Chicago favorite son. The group said city officials manipulated the approval process and tinkered with legislation to skirt longstanding laws designed to ensure residents have unobstructed access to lakeside parks.

"Defendants have chosen to deal with it in a classic Chicago political way ... to deceive and seemingly legitimize an illegal land grab," the lawsuit says.

"They are essentially giving [property] to Obama ... for 10 cents a year for 99 years," parks advocacy lawyer Mark Roth said Thursday

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The center was originally slated to open in 2021, though ground hasn't yet broken because of the lingering litigation. Some supporters of the project fear that ongoing litigation might lead Obama to decide to build the center somewhere else.

https://apple.news/A78bK59YgQnudlnjqopWwTQ

Poor Hopey-Changey! I bet he’s surprised that NOT everyone wants his shrine built. Now people are worrying about Hopey-Changey doing an Amazon and picking up his deflated ball and going elsewhere.

Maybe if he tried to build where he was born, he could commandeer a whole island.