Mother told to pump milk in men’s restroom at Chicago court

CHICAGO – A nursing mother is suing for discrimination after being told she should use the men’s restroom to express breast milk when she reported for jury duty at a Chicago court.

Attorney Judith Miller says a clerk told her Oct. 2 that there was no a lactation room in Chicago’s Daley Center. Miller had given birth 11 weeks earlier. She says the clerk said the power outlet in the women’s restroom was broken, but that she could use the men’s to pump instead.

Miller left the courthouse and didn’t serve.

Miller and the American Civil Liberties Union have filed a lawsuit alleging discrimination by Chicago and Cook County under the Illinois Human Rights Act.

Cook County officials say the clerk was misinformed and that all city and county courts have private spaces available for nursing mothers.