Board of Trustees of Southern Illinois University v. Knight

The board of trustees of Southern Illinois University (SIU) appeals from a judgment of the circuit court of Madison County which upheld on administrative review an order of the Illinois Human Rights Commission (the Commission). In that order, the Commission found that SIU had violated the Illinois Human Rights Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1983, ch. 68, par. 1—101 et seq.) when it refused to hire James Knight, who is black, as a “Police Officer Learner” because of the record of his arrest and conviction for unlawful possession of a weapon, a misdemeanor, approximately five years earlier. To remedy…