Voters will not have a chance to weigh in on legislative term limits in November. The Illinois Supreme Court this afternoon issued a brief order saying it will not hear the case.
That leaves in place the decision of two, lower courts that ruled the question unconstitutional.
In a statement, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner said that "Springfield career politicians" like his Democratic opponent, Governor Pat Quinn, won.
Quinn had pushed for term limits in the 1990s. The same court decision that knocked his proposal off the ballot then is what helped to doom Rauner’s now. The constitution only allows citizen's initiatives to change the constitution if it's to alter the structure and procedures of the legislature, and the court has found that term limits don't fit under that limitation.
Rauner had been pushing the Supreme Court rule on the legality of his citizen's initiative before the state's Board of Elections certified the November ballot. The board did that today, its deadline. Elections authorities ruled that a statewide slate of Libertarian candidates collected enough voter signatures and so will be on the ballot, but that the Green and Constitutional parties' slates did not.
