Dismissal Recommended In Challenge To Illinois Funding of Bald Knob Cross Renovation

In Sherman v. State of Illinois, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 131080 (CD IL, Dec. 10, 2010), an Illinois federal magistrate judge concluded that activist Robert Sherman lacks standing to bring an Establishment Clause challenge to a $20,000 renovation grant for Bald Knob Cross. The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity made the grant to Friends of the Cross to promote tourism to the Ozarks attraction. (See prior posting.) The court held that the Flast test for taxpayer standing was not met because the grant was made by the executive branch. It was not a specific legislative appropriation. The court, relying on Seventh Circuit precedent, also concluded that plaintiff's challenge became moot once the grant money was disbursed by the state to a private entity. The magistrate judge recommended the case be dismissed.