The battle over how the Chicago Teachers Union shares its financial records with members is now moving to an appellate court.
The Liberty Justice Center filed a Notice of Appeal in *Weiss v. Chicago Teachers Union*, challenging a lower‑court ruling on member access to full annual financial audits. The appeal asks the court to require the union to hand members complete audited reports on a regular basis, instead of offering only condensed summaries or in‑person inspections.
The appeal follows a September 11, 2026 decision by the Circuit Court of Cook County, which granted summary judgment to the CTU after the union uploaded its full financial audits to an online member portal.
Even though the records appeared online during the lawsuit, the union argued that the law does not obligate it to publish the full audits each year. Under the trial judge’s order, the union could choose to issue shorter audit summaries while directing members to view the complete records in person.
The dispute began on October 8, 2024, when the Liberty Justice Center sued the CTU on behalf of eleven members, alleging that the union had failed to provide annual audited reports for four straight years.
According to the union’s constitution and bylaws, “Each year, the Financial Secretary shall furnish an audited report of the Union which shall be printed in the Union’s publication.” The CTU cited that exact provision in its earlier motion to dismiss.
Court documents reveal that union leaders changed their explanations as the case progressed. Initially, the CTU claimed it had “always made its full annual audits available” to members who requested them. Later filings admitted the union was “catching up on finalizing audits.” Those papers show the 2020, 2021, and 2022 audits were not finished until after the members filed suit, and the 2023 audit remained incomplete well into 2025. The full audits finally appeared on the portal after the lawsuit, prompting inquiries from Congress and a review by the U.S. Department of Labor.
“CTU members should not have to file a new lawsuit every time they want to see the complete financial records their union has promised to provide,” said Ángel Valencia, Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center. “The union’s bylaws require transparency, and CTU members deserve consistent access to complete annual audits,not limited summaries or records made available only when litigation and outside scrutiny force the union to act.”
The union’s 2025 fiscal year closed on June 30, 2025, and it filed its 2025 federal tax return in May 2026. The completed 2025 audit has yet to reach union members. The pending appeal will ask the higher court to decide whether the CTU must provide fully finished audits directly to its members on an ongoing basis.
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