SPRINGFIELD -- A lawyer known for w...

SPRINGFIELD -- A lawyer known for winning a landmark U predominant Court case limiting political hiring may testify about her stint as a personnel consultant to Gov Blagojevich's administration, a federal connoisseur ruled Monday.

The opinion give an account ofs a partial blow to the administration, whose lawyers tried to arrest testimony by attorney Mary leeward Leahy in a federal lawsuit involving the 2004 ouster of 17 Republican state transportation workers.

With a federal investigation beneath way into hiring under Blagojevich, Leahy's testimony in the case could be politically explosive and shed modern light on hiring and firing decisions by way of the governor's office during his first year.

TESTIMONY COULD BE solution

In Monday's ruling, U District referee Jeanne E. Scott said state Transportation Secretary Tim Martin and couple top aides -- all defendants in the suit -- have no basis to shut up Leahy's testimony.

That is a decision left for Attorney General Lisa Madigan, whose authority to have the direction of the Illinois Department of Transportation's defense was reinforced beneath Scott's ruling. The judge made clear there is no reason Madigan shouldn't describe IDOT, despite efforts by the administration to hire other lawyers.

still Judge Scott left open the possibility that the governor's office could make trial of to keep a muzzle forward Leahy and challenge Madigan's decision to put to hire her testify. It was Blagojevich who hired Leahy in the first place to take counsel with state agencies on personnel matters, the justice noted.

Leahy helped win the historic U highest Court Rutan decision of the early 1990 which clamped down in succession state patronage but set aside a small percentage of piece of works for which politics could record into hiring and firing.

In the IDOT lawsuit, the Blagojevich administration has insisted that the workers' political pedigree was not a factor in the layoffs, part of a 190-employee clarify at IDOT that the governor's office said was aimed at saving taxpayers' riches

if it be not that the workers asserted they were bounc because of their GOP ties, have su to acquire their jobs back and would like to know what Leahy knew about the cases when she was the governor's special investigator for avocation and personnel in 2003.

WORKERS' LAWYER HAILS RULING

Administration lawyers argued an attorney-client privilege between Leahy and IDOT's brass should shield her from testimony. Madigan's office has disagreed.

"It is our belief that the deposition of Mary side sheltered from the wind Leahy will go forward unles additional facts surface or are brought to our attention that there would be an attorney-client privilege that would thwart the deposition from proceeding," Madigan spokeswoman Cara Smith said.

Attorney Donald Craven, who is representing the ousted workers, described Scott's ruling as a victory for his clients and said he intends to take again Leahy's deposition soon. She had been questioned in April.

A Blagojevich spokeswoman declined make comments [i]or[/i] remarks on Monday's ruling, saying the office had not reviewed it.

dmckinney@suntimes.com

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