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EXHIBIT A

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION
Protect Our Parks, Inc., Charlotte Adelman,
Maria Valencia, and Jeremiah Jurevis,
Plaintiffs,
v.
Chicago Park District and City of Chicago,
Defendants.

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Case No. 18-cv-3424
Honorable John Robert Blakey

BRIEF OF PROFESSOR RICHARD EPSTEIN AS AMICUS CURIAE IN SUPPORT OF
PLAINTIFFS’ OPPOSITION TO DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS OR FOR
JUDGMENT ON THE PLEADINGS

Michael Rachlis (ARDC No. 6203745)
Rachlis Duff Peel & Kaplan, LLC
542 S. Dearborn St., Suite 900
Chicago, IL 60605
(312) 733-3955
mrachlis@rdaplaw.net

Attorney for Amicus Curiae

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Interest and Identity of Amicus
This amicus curiae brief is submitted by Professor Richard A. Epstein, a well known and
highly regarded scholar, who for decades has taught and written extensively on trust and property
issues, including the public trust doctrine, and as such is deeply interested in the development and
application of public trust principles. As reflected in the short biography set forth in the Appendix,
Professor Epstein (referred to hereafter as “Amicus” or “Professor Epstein”) is currently on the
faculty at both the University of Chicago Law School and New York University Law School.
Amicus submits this brief in response to the amici curiae submission (the “Brief”) by
certain law professors (the “Group”). 1 The Group claims that the Obama Presidential Center
(“OPC”) “produces an overlapping consensus among property law scholars: the OPC is consistent
with the public trust doctrine and is an appropriate use of the Jackson Park site under any manner
of applying the doctrine.” (Brief at 7.) Amicus, a pre-eminent property law scholar, takes a
different view of the matter, and offers an alternative understanding of the history and structure of
the public trust doctrine, which makes it clear that the proposed transfer of property that comprises
the OPC not only represents bad public policy, but also is in clear violation of the public trust
doctrine.
The gist of the disagreement in this case and between the Group and Amicus goes to the
level of scrutiny that the courts should apply to any transfer of public lands by the City of Chicago
(“City”) to a private group, the Obama Foundation, for its private purposes. The Group insists (as
do the Defendants) a low rational basis standard applies to this case, so the City discharges its
fiduciary duties to the public at large so long as it can think of some benefit that might run to the

1

Amicus states that he co-authored this brief with undersigned counsel. No party or party’s counsel authored the brief
in whole or in part, and that no party or party’s counsel contributed money that was intended to fund preparing or
submitting the brief.

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public from the transfer of property in question, followed by the inaccurate conclusion that
“[c]onstructing the Obama Presidential Center . . . furthers the kinds of core uses contemplated by
the public trust doctrine.” To the contrary, Amicus believes that the fiduciary duties in this case
impose a far more exacting standard on the City, given the huge conflict of interest that arises from
the close and enduring connections that former President has with key City officials. That standard
requires that one look not just to the benefits claimed for the OPC, but also at the massive
dislocations and high costs of putting the project in this location. Amicus does not take the position
that it is impossible under any circumstances for the City and its Park District to strike a deal for
the construction of the OPC utilizing some public lands, but that as located and documented, the
proposed OPC fails under the public trust doctrine.
Relevant Background
Plaintiffs’ lawsuit challenges the proposed construction of the Obama Presidential Center
on some 19.3 acres in Jackson Park—one of the monumental creations by the renowned landscape
architect, Frederick Law Olmsted—on the south side of Chicago. The proposed site will have at
its epicenter a massive tower that could reach 235 feet, located near East 60th Street, close to, and
clashing with, nearby lakefront fixtures including both the Museum of Science and Industry as
well as the University of Chicago. The scale of the major and auxiliary buildings requires closing
a six-lane north-south artery, Cornell Avenue, which roadways are not only important historic
vistas to Jackson Park, but a major north-south route near Lake Michigan. In order to cope with
the disruption of traffic, the cash-strapped City will have to spend untold millions to make major
alterations to expand two nearby arteries, Lake Shore Drive on the east and Stony Island Avenue
on the west. Additional parking facilities will have to be built somewhere inside the park. An
initial OPC proposal to build a massive structure above ground was withdrawn after it was met

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with a chorus of boos. But Chicago’s high water table makes it an expensive (and problematic)
proposition to build a substitute facility below ground. The tight boundaries around the complex
will make it difficult to develop complementary businesses in the immediate neighborhood, and
are likely to cause displacement inconvenience to current businesses and residences as OPC related
activities are likely to take over.
There are, moreover, a number of less historically significant sites on the South Side of
Chicago that present none of the planning tangles of the proposed OPC project. While Amicus is
not endorsing a specific site, it should be noted, for example a combination of private and public
land near Washington Park, utilizing larger tracts of largely undeveloped space located just west
of Hyde Park, could easily house the OPC, leaving it room to grow. It is also near a major
expressway and has space for neighborhood businesses to develop.
These are not obscure concerns. Indeed, they have been a source of tension on the South
Side of Chicago. The proposed plans for the Park came into much criticism from University of
Chicago faculty and staff.
The South Side has an abundance of empty spaces. Acres of land owned by the University
of Chicago are a few minutes away on the vacant lots west of Washington Park at the corner
of Garfield Boulevard and Martin Luther King Drive, and plans already exist for a real
presidential library on that site. In that location, the center would have abundant public
green space a few steps away and a train line to downtown that would come to its very
door. It would sit on the commercial strip of Garfield Boulevard that is prime for economic
redevelopment. The Jackson Park location is not near a commercial strip. The economic
benefits will mainly take the form of big profits for real estate speculators in nearby
Woodlawn and gentrification that will drive out lower-income residents. 2
These objections to the project were effectively overridden when the Chicago City
Council’s Committee on Housing and Real Estate gave the project its unanimous blessing on

2

See Letter, W.J.T. Mitchell, professor University of Chicago: Who will benefit from the Obama Center? January
25, 2018, available at https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/letters/ct-obama-center-uchicago-jackson-park20180125-story.html

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October 11, 2018. By that time, however, the action had started to shift to the courts: On May 14,
2018 a long-time activist group, Protect Our Parks, joined by several Chicago residents, filed the
suit at bar, challenging the construction of the OPC under the public trust doctrine. The suit seeks
to invalidate the transfer of property rights in the Jackson Park land from the Park District to the
City for the nominal price of $1, after which the City plans to designate it for use by the Obama
Foundation, all without a formal transfer of title.
At no point did anyone offer a reasoned defense of the choice of location for the OPC that
systematically addressed the forceful objections against it. It is fair to say that the City and Park
District failed on two counts. First, they failed to undertake the due diligence of trustees to see
that the project made sense. Second, they never established that the project, which is rife with
conflicts of interest, supplies a fair value in exchange to the City.
Even this brief description offers conclusive evidence of the one-sided nature of this
transaction. Nonetheless, the Group’s amicus submission takes the position that none of this
evidence matters and that this Court should simply defer to the judgment of the City and Park
District, no matter how powerful the procedural and substantive objections against this project. In
their view, the matter is well-settled in favor of that deference. The purpose of this brief is to
present the alternative analysis of the case which is consistent with well-established fiduciary
principles, as applicable to public and private trustees which underlie public trust jurisprudence.
Summary of Argument
This case is about the fiduciary duties that attach to the management and disposition of all
public lands. Amicus argues that a uniform set of rules govern the behavior of trustees whether
public or private. The fact that land is or was once submerged is a factor to be taken into account
in deciding whether the actions of public bodies do or not comport with the public trust doctrine.

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In general, when lands are still submerged, alienation is far less likely to make sense from a social
or economic point of view, so that the faithful trustee should be highly reluctant to enter into those
transactions. But for land that has never been submerged (or which is no longer submerged), the
standard duties governing trustee behavior are long-standing. More concretely, the two relevant
duties are the business judgment rule and the fair value rule. In those cases, in which there is no
conflict of interest, the business judgment rule applies so that if the project is reasonable and in
good faith, then it can stand. But where the conflicts of interest are acute, as in this case, the risk
of favoritism in the use or disposition of public lands requires that close scrutiny be given to the
transaction to avoid the dissipation of public assets through illicit transfers to private parties.
Favoritism and intrigue are as out of place for public trustees as they are for private ones. Indeed,
what is distinctive about the public trust doctrine in the state of Illinois and elsewhere is that it is
often too restrictive insofar as it applies to submerged lands, where it prohibits any outright transfer
at all, even those which return substantial benefits to the public at large, which make them win/win
for both sides. But it is widely agreed that this total prohibition—which would doom the OPC
from the outset—does not appear applicable to this transaction. The only relevant issue is the level
of scrutiny brought to the deal. In light of the facts in this case, the conflicts of interest are rife so
that the proper standard of review is the higher fair value standard, which the purported transfer of
use rights to the OPC clearly flunks.
I.

Public Trust Jurisprudence Focuses on the Use and Abuse of Fiduciary Obligations
of Public Officials Relative to Public Trust Property.
The Group holds that the key element in the analysis is whether the public trust property

is located on land that was once-submerged under Lake Michigan land or not: if the public trust
property is on currently or previously submerged land, any purported transfer fails on the ground
that no alienation of such land is permitted under the public trust doctrine. In contrast, if the project
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is not located on lands that were never submerged, (as Defendants argue here as to Jackson Park),
then it goes forward almost as a matter of course.
That position is inconsistent with the current state of the law. The seminal case on the
public trust doctrine, Ill. Cent. R. Co. v. Illinois, 146 U.S. 387 (1892), did result in a total
prohibition against any form of transfer. But that rule has never been applied to lands that were
never submerged, which includes Jackson Park. Thus, in Paepcke v. Pub. Bldg. Comm’n of
Chicago, 46 Ill. 2d 330 (1970), the Illinois Supreme Court expanded the public trust doctrine from
one designed to preserve navigation, commerce, and fishing (i.e., addressing submerged Lake
Michigan land) to one concerned more broadly with any public decision to reallocate public
resources “to more restricted uses or to subject public uses to the self-interest of private parties.”
46 Ill. 2d at 336-37. The Paepcke Court expanded standing to taxpayers to challenge a public
project on the grounds that they own fractional interests in that property. Id. at 341.
Paepcke clearly stands for the proposition that the public trust doctrine is not necessarily
tied to whether the property transfer at issue involves submerged Lake Michigan land or not. If
the state of law was as the Group suggest, there would have been no need or purpose for the Illinois
Supreme Court in Paepcke to expand the public trust doctrine beyond that set forth in Illinois
Central. What sits at the heart of a public trust case is not necessarily the question of whether a
property sits on submerged Lake Michigan land, but rather the actions of and influences upon the
trustee/fiduciary – legislative and executive officials– in their decision making relative to the use
and disposition of such property. This inquiry is the common thread that weaves through public
trust cases, and is the mechanism by which the courts are tasked with ensuring that a transfer of
public trust property is fair and proper, and not tainted with conflicts, insider favoritism, or selfdealing favoring a private party.

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Under the public trust doctrine, the government is prohibited from giving use and control
of public property for a private purpose. The legislature and municipal representatives act as
trustees with special duties and responsibilities relative to the public (the owners of such property)
for the use and/or transfer of public trust property. See Illinois Central, 146 U.S. at 453 (state
cannot “abdicate its trust over property in which the whole people are interested… so as to leave
them entirely under the use and control of private parties.”) (emphasis supplied). The basic tenants
of public trust law boil down to a review of why the fiduciary is transferring the public property
and who will be using it: “Three basic principles can be distilled from this body of public trust
case law. First, courts should be critical of attempts by the state to surrender valuable public
resources to a private entity …. Second, the public trust is violated when the primary purpose of a
legislative grant is to benefit a private interest. . . . Finally, any attempt by the state to relinquish
its power over a public resource should be invalidated under the doctrine.” Lake Michigan Fed’n
v. U.S. Army Corps of Eng’rs, 742 F. Supp. 441, 445 (N.D. Ill. 1990).
Because of the special obligations that governmental officials have as trustees in guarding
public trust properties, courts have imposed a heightened standard of review of the performance
of those obligations relative to the disposition of such properties. Such law and policy, discussed
in Section II, infra, supports the role of the courts in closely scrutinizing a proposed transfer of
public trust property.
II.

Public Trust Cases Require a Heightened Standard of Review.
The Group’s overarching claim is that public trust law mandates that complete deference

be provided to the legislative pronouncements, and to the extent that the law differs from that view,
such decisions are distinguishable because they involve submerged land or are just wrong. That
claim, however, is not based on an accurate reading of the public trust doctrine, nor related

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jurisprudence addressing use of public property for private purposes or the evaluation of actions
of fiduciaries.
The applicable cases and underlying policies teach that courts apply (or should apply)
heightened scrutiny well above the (at best) tepid rational basis type of review advanced by the
Group. Such increased scrutiny is consistent with legislative history on the disposition of public
property, the common law on public trust issues, as well as related doctrines dealing with eminent
domain, as well as the manner in which the law has analyzed such duties and responsibilities in
the applying the business judgment rule relative to actions of directors and trustees in private
transactions.
With respect to legislative history, during the Sixth Illinois Constitutional Convention held
in advance of the adoption of the 1970 Illinois Constitution, when questions arose regarding what
might violate the public funds for private purpose clause, it was made clear that the courts had
resolved such questions, and would continue to resolve those issues. 3
Consistent with such pronouncements, public trust case law demands heightened scrutiny
because the purpose “of the public trust doctrine is to police the legislature's disposition of public
lands.” Lake Michigan Fed'n, 742 F. Supp. at 446. “If courts were to rubber stamp legislative
decisions, ... the doctrine would have no teeth. The legislature would have unfettered discretion to
breach the public trust as long as it was able to articulate some gain to the public.” Id.
Such heightened scrutiny (which provides teeth to the public trust doctrine) is not
surprising because it mirrors the type of scrutiny that is applied to eminent domain cases.

3

Representative Frank Cicero stated: “The question of what is a public or private purpose is ultimately settled by the
court. Legislation setting up any particular use of public funds or any particular extension of credit usually states that
it is to serve some public purpose, but the ultimate decision on that question is up to the courts and would continue to
be so.” Record of Proceedings, Sixth Illinois Constitutional Convention, Verbatim Transcripts at page 870.

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Thus, while the Takings Clause commands that private property not be taken for public use without
just compensation, the public trust doctrine demands that public property should not be given to
private use without just compensation. It is understood the two doctrines are complements for
each other.
The public trust doctrine is the mirror image of the eminent domain clause. Both are
designed to place limitations on the power of the legislature to divert property, whether
held privately or in common, from A to B, or more generally from a group of As to a group
of Bs. Both doctrines derive from a strong sense of equity that condemns these
uncompensated transfers as a genteel from of theft, regardless of whether the holdings are
public or private.
Epstein, The Public Trust Doctrine, 7 Cato Journal 411, 426 (Fall 1987).
In a typical eminent domain case, the government is prohibited from taking property from
a private party to serve a primarily private purpose. In such cases, a heightened scrutiny is applied
to the determination of whether there was in fact a public use associated with the taking. See, e.g.
Sw. Ill. Dev. Auth. v. Nat’l City Envtl., L.L.C., 199 Ill.2d 225, 239 (2002). In that case, the Illinois
Supreme Court rejected the exact argument advanced here by the Group (and the Defendants),
namely that the “wisdom . . . of the legislation and the ‘means of executing the project’ are beyond
judicial scrutiny ‘once the public purpose has been established.’ . . . We disagree. The Constitution
and the essential liberties we are sworn to protect control.” Id. at 242. Given the number of
individuals impacted by the transfer of public trust property, the application of heightened scrutiny
is more than appropriate. To that same point, the need to scrutinize transactions that may be tainted
with fraud, conflicts, and/or insider favoritism is further reason to have meaningful judicial review,
as is done when courts evaluate the conduct of trustees and fiduciaries in private transactions.
Illinois law (like that of other jurisdictions) shields directors and officers who have been
diligent and careful in performing their duties from liability for honest errors or mistakes in
judgment. See, e.g., Stamp v. Touche Ross & Co., 263 Ill. App. 3d 1010, 1015 (1st Dist. 1993).
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The business judgment rule was developed in recognition that “courts are ill equipped to engage
in post hoc substantive review of business decisions,” and “operates to preclude a court from
imposing itself unreasonably on the business and affairs of a corporation.” Sharper v. Bryan, 371
Ill. App. 3d 1079, 1092 (1st Dist. 2007) (discussing Delaware law).
However, where there are allegations of failure of due care, or allegations of bad faith,
fraud, illegality, self-dealing, conflicts, or gross overreaching the business judgment rule is not
applicable. See, e.g., Palm v. 2800 Lake Shore Drive Condo. Ass’n, 2014 IL App (1st) 111290, ¶¶
108-115 (affirming trial court determination that business judgment rule inapplicable). In such
circumstances, the actions of the fiduciary are subject to heightened scrutiny to determine whether
he or she became sufficiently informed to make an independent business decision, or have been
influenced by self-dealing, fraud, or other conflicts. See, e.g., Davis v. Dyson, 387 Ill. App. 3d
676 (1st Dist. 2008) (reversing dismissal of complaint alleging that directors did not have enough
information to make decision). Put differently, a rubber stamp by a board or officers of actions by
those actively managing a business will not suffice to allow the application of the business
judgment rule. See, e.g., Barr v. Wackman, 329 N.E.2d 180, 188 (N.Y. 1975).
All of these principles are expressly or impliedly implicated within the public trust
doctrine, and provide guidance regarding the concerns and scrutiny properly used by courts in
addressing such cases. Decisions where deference was shown generally did not involve situations
where there were many, if any, notions of conflicts or improper insider actions or favoritism; put
differently, the courts applied some measure of the business judgment rule. For example, in
Paepcke, there were no implications of a lack of diligence in decision making, insider related
favoritism, self-dealing, and/or other conflicts in conjunction with the creation of the development
of a school in Washington Park. To the contrary, there are a host of facts that established that there

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were no insider related favoritism or conflicts which led to the decision to find that the construction
of a public school that used a tiny portion of land in Washington Park (2.6 acres) did not violate
the public trust doctrine. If that were not enough, the court found that such use of this property for
the construction of a school to be part of the original plans approved by the legislature for
Washington Park, and as such, the fiduciary was not taking steps where original park purposes
were destroyed or greatly impaired. Paepcke, 46 Ill. 2d at 342-43.
Similarly, the decision in People ex rel. Kirk, which involved approval of the construction
of Lakeshore Drive, appeared to have no issues of fraud or insider dealing. And, as to the Friends
of the Parks case involving Soldier Field – the stadium itself that was subject to the public trust
challenge remained a sports stadium, which is being used by the Bears for a limited amount of
days per year.
However, in other cases where there were notions of failures of due care, insider favoritism
and the like, the courts applied heightened scrutiny. In People ex rel. Scott v. Chicago Park Dist.,
66 Ill. 2d 65 (1977), issues existed as to the due care that was being taken in regards to the sale of
public trust land to a private party. No different than the position advanced by the Group (and the
Defendants in the litigation), there were arguments about deference that was required given the
pronouncements by the legislature. The deference arguments were rejected, with the court noting
that when public trust property is involved, “additional employment and economic improvement
is too indirect, intangible and elusive to satisfy the requirements,” requiring much more detail and
support to justify such a transfer. Scott, 66 Ill. 2d at 80-81. The Court emphasized that such
additional scrutiny was important given other public concerns as “there has developed a strong,
though belated, interest in conserving natural resources and in protecting and improving our
physical environment. The public has become increasingly concerned with dangers to health and

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life from environmental sources and more sensitive to the value and, frequently, the irreplaceability
of natural resources.” Id. at 79. This precise concern is important in the case at bar as well, given
the iconic status of Jackson Park.
Similarly, in the Lucas Museum case – which is the most recent decision on such issues
and involving a situation that is similar to the one at bar – the district court found that the plaintiffs
had alleged sufficient facts to establish a violation of the public trust doctrine. See Friends of the
Parks v. Chicago Park Dist., 2015 WL 1188615 (N.D. Ill. March 12, 2015) (“Lucas I), and Friends
of the Parks v. Chicago Park Dist., 160 F. Supp. 3d 1060 (N.D. Ill. 2016) (“Lucas II”). In that
matter, the Court held that the status of the land as previously submerged militated against its
transfer to a private party (a not for profit entity). But as the area of Jackson Park at issue here
may not be on submerged land, the key analytical issue in that case relates to the question of
whether the City had taken steps to make itself sufficiently informed to make an independent
business judgment about the project, and whether the deal in question, which transferred the right
to use and control of the property to a private entity for 99 years was sufficiently advantageous to
the City.
The Group tries valiantly to distinguish this case, but the clear message is as follows: If
there were genuine doubts about the processes of decision and the potential conflicts of interest
with the Lucas Museum, then any transfer of exclusive use rights to the OPC is, as we now show,
blatantly inconsistent with the public trust doctrine.
III. The Public Trust Doctrine, Related Law and Policy Are Against the OPC.
The Group’ conclusory statement that the OPC is a permissible use of Jackson Park (Brief
at 13) is the byproduct of their result oriented and faulty analysis.

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The Group concedes that the OPC is being constructed on public trust property. That is
not debatable under the principles of Illinois Central and Paepcke.
As discussed supra, public trust law, and policy clearly provide special protections,
analogous to the protections provided by the United States and Illinois constitutions to private
property, insuring that use and control of public property is not given to private parties. Here, a
private party – the Obama Foundation – is being provided 19.3 acres of Jackson Park to essentially
own and control, and in that process actually work to destroy that land and its uses. The Paepcke
court understood that the public trust doctrine provided guard rails against “more restricted uses
or to subject public uses to the self-interest of private parties.” Further, while the Obama
Foundation is a not-for-profit and affiliated with the 44th President of the United States, that does
not make a difference to the analysis: “Nor should the federal court carve out an exception to the
law because the affected private party is a respectable non-profit entity.” Lake Michigan Fed’n,
742 F. Supp. 2d at 445. Ignoring these salient facts, the Group insists that it is a profound mistake
“to reject the legislative determination that the construction of a museum and center focused on
the 44th President, and the first African American President of the United States will serve the
public interest.” No one denies that abstract proposition.
Once that bald declaration is made, the Group avoids addressing the manifest conflicts of
interest in the case. Former President Obama is one of the most powerful and influential
personages in Chicago life, with deep ties to Mayor Rahm Emanuel and with many close
connections to key city public officials. His enormous clout cries out, not for deference, but for
searching scrutiny. Yet the Group does not devote one word to the critical question of fair value.
The manifold objections on that front start with the obvious point that permanent use of the site is
given to the Obama Foundation without any rental payment. Perhaps the added attraction that the

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center gives to the City of Chicago could justify such an arrangement. But if so, the point applies
with equal force to building it in some other location in the City. The public benefits to the City
come from the location of the OPC in Chicago, not from its location in Jackson Park.
The cozy relationship between the Obama Foundation and the City explains why the public
trust doctrine is applicable and inconsistent with the OPC. Indeed, analogous to the law regarding
the application of the business judgment rule, the transaction at issue is a classic circumstance of
an insider favoritism, one where the self-interests of the private party dictates all results and actions
of the Mayor (Obama’s former Chief of Staff) and the City Council who simply acted to rubber
stamp the wishes and desires of that private party. Those wishes include, inter alia, the destruction
of Jackson Park, the elimination of hundreds of trees, the destruction of the historic Women’s
Garden, historic roadways closed and the addition of a 235’ tower on the Midway which carries
with it a 99-year commitment, with the large swath of the rights of ownership being provided to
and exercised by the Obama Foundation. 4 Such transactions are viewed with heightened scrutiny
under every applicable body of law, which is necessary here.
Essentially ignoring much of these concerns, the Group argues that whether something is
a public purpose is for the legislature, not the courts. That position is unsupported. First, as
discussed supra, there is ample law, whether it be public trust, eminent domain, or cases looking

4

Moreover, arguments that the property would ultimately revert back to the public ownership if the private party here
fails to succeed ignores the huge interim damage that this project will cause. Conceptually, moreover, that bland
pronouncement is no different than the empty legislative pronouncements of public benefits that are also to be ignored.
It is indeed nonsensical to give up a unique public treasure and allow it to be destroyed, controlled, and used, and
somehow justify it by saying if the project fails, whatever its tattered and scarred remains will revert back to the public.
Whatever may be returned later does not diminish the lack of control and use, and the destruction that is caused through
those efforts irrevocably changes what if anything that would be returned to the public.

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at the application of the business judgment rule, that require that a court meaningfully participate
in the determination of whether a transfer of property is for an appropriate public purpose. 5
Second, the Group’s mantra of legislative deference based on the idea that the City Council
and legislature have spoken reflects a naïve view of local politics, which explains why it has always
been soundly rejected. By arguing that the legislature has already spoken, the Group advances a
standard of no review, and thereby foreordains that all transfers will pass constitutional muster.
That is not the state of the law, which mandates heightened scrutiny and the ignoring of hollow
pronouncements of economic development and other benefits as were rejected in Scott and Lucas.
Indeed, Lucas is consistent with the position of the Plaintiffs here, and if properly applied, leads
to the conclusion that the proposed OPC is violative of the public trust doctrine. In making its
determination, the Lucas court recognized that courts must be skeptical with regards to claims of
public benefit, otherwise the “legislature would have unfettered discretion,” which is applicable
here.
Moreover, the situation involving OPC involves insider favoritism where the parties
entering into the deal are those with close alliances to those in public office, and are appropriately
subject to heightened scrutiny as if it were a private transaction where a director or trustee has
raised the business judgment rule but questions of conflicts, favoritism, and inadequate preparation
are at issue. These are precisely the type of issues that public trust law is concerned with.
Further, it cannot be ignored that the public trust property at issue here has a designated
and recognized use – a unique and national historic Olmsted landscape. No public trust decision
has approved the utter destruction of an existing landmark landscape to further a private (or for
even that matter a public) interest. Even the Group recognizes that a goal of the public trust

5

Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803) recognizes that courts must have some role in reviewing
legislative action as “[i]t is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.”

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 Case: Document 69-1 Filed: 01/15/19 Page 18 of 19 PageID #:1953

doctrine is to avoid ?momentous and ecologically irreversible governmental action.? That is
precisely what is at issue here with OPC.

Conclusion: The application to build the OPC in Jackson Park is contrary to the public
trust doctrine, and the Defendants? motion to dismiss must be denied.

Dated: January 15, 2018 Respectfully submitted,

PROFESSOR RICHARD EPSTEIN

Mg,?

Attorney for amicus curiae

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Case: 1:18-cv-03424 Document #: 69-1 Filed: 01/15/19 Page 19 of 19 PageID #:1954

APPENDIX
Short Biographical Statement

Richard A. Epstein is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law, at New
York University, the Peter and Kirstin Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution,
and the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus and
Senior Lecturer, the University of Chicago. He has written and taught
extensively on property and constitutional issues, including those pertaining to
the public trust doctrine.

His books include The Classical Liberal

Constitution: The Uncertain Quest for Limited Government (2014), and
Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Doman (1985). He is a
member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1985), a recipient of
the Bradley Prize (2011), and honorary degrees from the University of Ghent
(2003), and the University of Siegen (2018).

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