All of this — from Tom Fitton-affiliated loons — will never amount to a hill of beans. Everyone knows it — including USDC Judge Kness. But here we are, almost two years later… and it drags onward.

In my opinion, USDC Judge Kness could have — and should have — used common sense (embedded in the federal rules), to conserve court’s, and Evanston’s, resources in the face of such a spurious “strike” suit — and allowed a sworn question, one only (propounded by the City, to each of the supposed plaintiffs) — “Did you live in Evanston at any time, between… 2019 through 2026, inclusive?”

If the sworn answer came back as “no” [or as “I cannot prove that I did….”] — the entire lawsuit is at an end. They are bounced out, on their ears.

[Moreover, these plaintiffs will owe the city of Evanston the legal fees Evanston spent, in defending this clearly vexatious suit.]

But instead, Judge Kness will wait for “regular” discovery — where this same question and answer will generate this same result: dismissal of the Fitton acolytes. See this Friday order, then:

…Disputes over the merits, and consequently, the timeliness of Plaintiffs’ claims are best resolved through ordinary merits discovery, where the Court can benefit from a full factual record….

In this case, the City contends Plaintiffs’ complaint is… devoid of any allegations regarding the timing of Plaintiffs’ knowledge of the Program, whether they could have applied, or how they could have satisfied what Defendant claims were the Program’s residency and housing-related eligibility requirements. (Dkt. 13 ¶ 14.) Plaintiffs were not “able” to apply to the Program, the City maintains, because, although their relatives once lived in Evanston, nothing in Plaintiffs’ complaint alleges that Plaintiffs live in or own property they intended to improve in Evanston….

Factual development in the ordinary course of this litigation may well bear out the truth of the City’s contention….

Well — this is a waste of time — as the City will surely establish, by discovery, that not one of these “recruited” plaintiffs live in Evanston (nor lived here in the past immediately before the program was adopted by Evanston), and that none of them were even aware of the program, until AFTER applications were closed. In sum, they were recruited by far right idiots like Tom Fitton, solely because they at one point had a WHYTE ancestor who’d lived in Evanston. Damn. What a waste of time — and money.

नमस्ते