The attorney general of Illinois filed in the supreme court of Illinois, at its June term, 1897, an original petition against Joseph Kipley, superintendent of police of the city of Chicago, and Adolph Kraus, Dudley Winston, and Hempstead Washburne, commissioners appointed under the act of the legislature of Illinois in force on and after March 20, 1895, entitled 'An act to regulate the civil service of cities.' The application for leave to file the petition was accompanied by a suggestion upon the part of the attorney general that the case involved an interpretation of the above act.
The prayer of the petition was that a writ of mandamus issue, commanding Kipley, as superintendent of police of Chicago, to notify the civil service commissioners of all vacancies existing in the positions of assistant superintendent of police, inspectors of police, and captains of police in the city of Chicago, and commanding the civil service commissioners to submit to Kipley, as superintendent of police, the names of not more than three applicants for promotion for each vacancy from the grade next below that in which such vacancy or vacancies exist, and that the petitioner have such other or further relief as the nature of the case required.
Kipley filed a separate answer, in which he insisted that he had acted in all respects in conformity with law. He also averred that although the act regulating the civil service of cities was passed and approved substantially as stated in the petition, and was afterwards submitted to a vote of the electors of Chicago, and adopted by a large majority of votes, it was 'unconstitutional and void,' in that it purported to confer judicial powers and authority to make and enforce judgments and decisions of a nonjudicial body, described and set forth in the act as the 'Civil Service Commission.'
Subsequently, June 28, 1897, the city council of Chicago passed an ordinance designating certain public officers who should be selected by the mayor with the concurrence of the council. Kipley, July 10, 1897, filed a plea setting forth this ordinance, and alleging, in relation to the appointment by the civil service commissioners of certain subordinate police officers of the city, that they 'have been, if they ever were within the same, wholly taken away from and removed out of the control, jurisdiction, and power of the said civil service commissioners, so that such matters are now expressly excepted, by its very terms from the force and effect of said civil service act.'
On the 7th day of October, 1897, Kipley asked leave of the court to withdraw his plea, and also to amend his answer so as to embody therein averments to the effect that the relator was not entitled to a writ of mandamus, and that the court had no jurisdiction or power to grant the same, because the said civil service act of March 20, 1895, was null and void, and contrary to the constitution of the state of Illinois and the constitution of the United States, in that:
'(1) It abridges the privileges and immunities of the citizens of the United States, because it operates to exclude from the classified service of such city, as therein specified, all such citizens as do not apply for office, or for place of employment.
'(2) The said act of March 20, 1895, deprives a duly elected and qualified officer of the right to select his subordinates, and provide the requisite agencies for performing his official duties; thus abridging the rights, privileges, and immunities belonging and guarantied by the said constitutions, respectively, to every citizen thereof.
'(3) The said act of March 20, 1895, provides for the invasion of the right of the people to be secure, in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.
'(4) The said act of March 20, 1895, purports to prescribe for the criminal trial of public officers for nonfeasance, for misfeasance, for malfeasance in office, and for the infliction of penalties therefor, of deprivation of office, of fine, of imprisonment, and incapacity to hold office thereafter, by a nonjudicial body, and in such manner that the accused shall not enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the state or district wherein the crime shall have been committed, and without informing the accused of the nature and cause of the accusation, and without confronting the accused with the witnesses against him, and without permitting the accused to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for the defense.
'(5) That the said act denies to the citizens the freedom of political action, making it highly penal for the citizen to take part in party politics.