By Joe Tabor, includes “Illinois still has a lot of work to do to clean up its culture of corruption, but that work would become more difficult if voters a year from now pass an amendment to make unions the only special interest protected by the Illinois Constitution. … Amendment 1 would elevate government union collective bargaining agreements above Illinois state law. This means any state law that involves employees, whether those laws establish protocols for investigating police misconduct or determine qualifications for teachers, could be voided if it runs counter to union contracts.”