J.F. Shea Co. v. City of Chicago

ESCHBACH, Senior Circuit Judge. J.F. Shea Company, Incorporated and other corporate plaintiffs and individual plaintiffs (collectively Shea) are appealing the district courts dismissal of their complaint and denial of their claims for equitable relief as moot. Sheas complaint alleged that the City of Chicago and the other defendants, employees of the City of Chicago and Walsh Construction Co. (collectively the City), violated both the Commerce Clause and the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the United States Constitution. Shea is a general contractor who was not awarded a sewer contract with the City because the City has a local business preference rule. The district court determined that the City was acting as a market participant and therefore the commerce clause was inapplicable and that none of the plaintiffs had standing to assert a violation of the Privileges and Immunities Clause. The only issues for us in this appeal are whether the district court erred in dismissing the complaint on the basis that the City was acting as a market participant and whether an Indiana employee of J.F. Shea has standing to raise the issue of the Privileges and Immunities Clause. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291.