The Chicago Teachers Union is suing the Illinois Policy Institute and the Liberty Justice Center, alleging in a defamation complaint that the nonprofits have waged a “deliberate, coordinated and ongoing smear campaign” through social media posts and articles aimed at harming the union’s reputation.
The two groups have accused the CTU of financial mismanagement and other misconduct “with reckless disregard as to the veracity of those accusations,” according to the complaint, filed Monday in the Circuit Court of Cook County.
In a news release, CTU Vice President Jackson Potter accused Illinois Policy Institute and the Liberty Justice Center of pushing “reckless falsehoods.”
“We are standing up to a right-wing firm that has been peddling outright lies and phony attacks meant to undo the public education system our children rely on and the labor unions that give working people a voice,” Potter said.
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Also named in the complaint is Austin Berg, IPI’s vice president of marketing. IPI describes itself as a nonpartisan research organization, but it promotes free-market and conservative policy reform.
A spokesperson for the Illinois Policy Institute said the nonprofit is “reviewing the case at this time.” The Liberty Justice Center said in a statement the complaint is “filled with factual misstatements and mischaracterizations.”
“This lawsuit attempts to turn criticism and satire concerning legitimate questions about CTU’s financial reporting and years-delayed audits into defamation,” the statement said.
Much of the lawsuit stems from ongoing scrutiny of the union’s audit reports. The Liberty Justice Center is suing CTU on behalf of four members for allegedly withholding the financial documents since 2019. The case is still pending, but a Cook County judge recently ordered discovery to move forward.
The union also faced an inquiry from the Republican-led U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce over the audit reports. CTU, which has been a staunch critic of the Trump administration, contended the probe was politically motivated. In his initial letter to the union, committee Chairman Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., cited an Illinois Policy Institute article and a social media post from Berg.
CTU has argued that the audit reports have since been made available to members. In the complaint, CTU said the documents were delayed due to COVID-19 and staffing turnover at its outside auditor.
Still, the union says, IPI and the Liberty Justice Center “made public accusations that CTU engaged in criminal activity and fraud in relation to its audits, using incendiary language, innuendo, and inflammatory graphics.”
The complaint cites several posts on X from the Liberty Justice Center, including a graphic of Potter and CTU President Stacy Davis Gates on a cookbook titled “Cooking the Books.” “The only thing (CTU) leadership knows how to serve is excuses,” the post said.
CTU represents 30,000 teachers, clinicians and paraprofessionals in Chicago Public Schools. The union has emerged as a powerful progressive force in Chicago politics, helping elect Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former CTU organizer, into office in 2023.
But the union’s top brass has at times faced criticism for its hard-charging leadership style. Recent polling commissioned by IPI has shown that CTU’s popularity has declined. During the 2024 school board election, voters rejected six out of nine CTU-backed candidates in contested districts. The union has endorsed 15 board hopefuls in the upcoming November election. Johnson has yet to announce his bid for a second term but remains a close CTU ally.
The complaint points to the repeated use of the word “toxic” in IPI and Berg’s articles to describe CTU’s leadership and its finances, which it describes as a “premeditated effort.” It also links to a website run by IPI, LeaveCTU.com, which encourages members to opt out of the union to save money on dues.
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In a news release, John Owen, CTU’s attorney for the case, said the union “believes public debate is important,” but IPI and the Liberty Justice Center made “knowingly false and malicious defamatory accusations” that are not protected by the First Amendment.
CTU is seeking both compensatory and punitive damages.