Conservative legal group goes to the SEC in fight over Chicago casino's minority investment plan

CHICAGO (CN) — The conservative legal group Liberty Justice Center announced Friday morning that it was filing a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission in opposition to an initiative meant to boost minority investment in Bally’s as-yet-unfinished Chicago casino.

Liberty Justice Center made the announcement after U.S. District Judge Franklin Valderrama, in a related civil suit, denied a motion to preliminarily enjoin the investment initiative on Thursday evening. The court found the suit’s white plaintiff Mark Glennon, founder and executive editor of the conservative web publication Wirepoints, hadn’t shown he’d suffer “irreparable harm” if the investment plan went ahead.

“The court’s dismissal of our request for emergency relief does not change our case — the reality is that the city of Chicago and Bally’s Casino jointly agreed to a racially and sexually discriminatory contract that violates investors’ statutory and constitutional rights," Reilly Stephens, senior counsel at the Liberty Justice Center, said Friday morning in a prepared statement.

Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot chose Bally’s bid to build the city’s first casino resort in May 2022, and nearly three years later, the $1.7 billion project remains unfinished. As part of its deal with the city, Bally’s must hold a 25% equity stake in the casino for women and people of color. The company launched an initial public offering of 10,000 shares — meant to boost investment from women and people of color — between $250 and $25,000 per share in late December as part of that commitment.

Glennon sued Bally’s and Chicago on Jan. 30 in opposition to the IPO, claiming it discriminated against him based on his race and sex. He claimed he filed to participate in the IPO on Jan. 24 but was turned down for being a white man.

“Plaintiff attempted to participate in the upcoming IPO for a major casino project in the city but, because of an agreement between the city and the project’s owner, was not allowed to purchase shares on an equal basis with other investors because he is a white male,” Glennon wrote in his complaint, in which he is represented by the Liberty Justice Center.

Glennon, who claims a history in venture capital investment, wrote about the IPO on Wirepoints before he filed his complaint and the day after. He derided the plan as a violation of nondiscrimination law and an “outright ban on white males” in a column published on Jan. 31.

Chicago responded to Glennon’s motion for a temporary restraining order on the IPO this past Tuesday. The city argued, among other points, that Glennon hadn’t shown he’d suffer any injuries from not participating in the IPO that couldn’t be rectified by money damages.

“Plaintiff provides no reason why the investment avenue afforded by the IPO is anything but a financial opportunity, fungible with any other potential way he might earn money. Thus, damages would suffice to make him whole,” the city argued. “The temporary restraining order may be denied on that basis alone.”

Judge Valderrama agreed in his Thursday order.

“The court finds that Glennon has neither demonstrated that his alleged injury is not financial in nature or shown that monetary damages can adequately compensate that injury,” Valderrama wrote. “Glennon has repeatedly emphasized the violation here is his exclusion from purchasing shares and does not once assert that his inability to participate in the financial aspect of Bally’s IPO cannot be redressed through pecuniary means.”

Liberty Justice Center now urges the SEC to withhold its approval of the initial public offering based on discrimination of potential investors. In a prepared statement, the conservative legal group said the SEC may be required to halt the distribution of the IPO shares while Glennon’s litigation remains pending in the district court.

Glennon is not the only white man to sue over Bally’s plan to attract minority investment. The American Alliance for Equal Rights, a conservative nonprofit, filed a similar suit the day before Glennon filed his. Two white male Texas residents joined as plaintiffs. As with Glennon, their case is currently pending.

The American Alliance for Equal Rights was founded by Edward Blum, a conservative litigant who is also president of the nonprofit Students for Fair Admissions. In June 2023, the Supreme Court gutted affirmative action policies in a case brought by Students for Fair Admissions against Harvard.

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