Judge: attorney must testify in IDOT lawsuit

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- In an apparent legal setback for Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration, a federal judge has ruled that Springfield attorney Mary Lee Leahy must give a deposition in a wrongful firing lawsuit brought by 17 former Illinois Department of Transportation employees.

Last month, the state agreed to let Leahy give a deposition, but only if it were limited to questions about employment policies at IDOT itself. But under Friday's ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Byron Cudmore, the questioning will not be limited to activities at that agency.

Cudmore said Leahy must answer questions about her work for more than a dozen state agencies during the six months she served as a contractor for Blagojevich's administration.

Leahy is best known for convincing the U.S. Supreme Court to outlaw most political patronage through the Rutan decision. After Blagojevich assumed office, he employed her to review state hiring practices and identify unnecessary jobs.

In their lawsuit, the former IDOT employees contend they were illegally fired by the Democratic administration because they are Republicans. Their attorneys want to question Leahy about personnel activities in the early days of the Blagojevich administration.

"Plaintiffs allege that the defendants participated in an illegal, statewide scheme to fire supporters of the Republican [George] Ryan administration in violation of the employees' First Amendment rights," Cudmore wrote in his opinion. "Leahy's work with state officials outside of [IDOT] may be relevant to this claim or may lead to relevant evidence related to this claim."

Carl Draper, one of the lawyers representing the fired workers, told The (Springfield) State Journal-Register he was pleased by Cudmore's ruling.

"We are alleging a broad-based scheme, and to find evidence of that, we have to be able to look at all of the agencies," Draper said.

A spokeswoman for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who is representing IDOT, said the deposition would proceed as ordered by Cudmore.