Schools

Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against District 122 Board Member Broderick

Maureen Broderick acted within her rights as a school board member, and had quasi-judicial immunity, a federal judge ruled.

Correction: An earlier version of this story previously stated that Judge Darrah found to be true Miller's accusations against Broderick. 

A judge has dismissed a civil rights lawsuit filed a year ago by one District 122 board member, against another. 

A federal judge stated that New Lenox School District 122 Board member Maureen Broderick had “quasi-judicial immunity” when she voted in January 2013 to oust board member Kathy Miller from the ballot—a move Miller claimed violated her civil rights.

In order to move forward with the dismissal, Darrah stated that he must accept as true Miller's claims that Broderick personally filed an objection to Miller's candidacy petitions, and then also recruited a woman to sign it, allowing Broderick to sit on the election board in the case, U.S. District Court Judge John Darrah ruled Feb. 26.

Still, Darrah said, Broderick was within her powers as a board member, in her vote on the challenge as a member of the election board. Broderick was covered by "quasi-judicial immunity"—a concept applied to public officials “who perform acts ‘functionally comparable’ to judges.”

Get the full story on Sun-Times Media.


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