Cite as: 522 U. S. 156 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
Richard J. Brennan argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief were Kimball R. Anderson and Thomas C. Cronin.*
Justice O'Connor delivered the opinion of the Court.
The city of Chicago, like municipalities throughout the country, has an ordinance that provides for the designation and protection of historical landmarks. Chicago Municipal Code, Art. XVII, §§ 2-120-580 through 2-120-920 (1990). The city's Landmarks Ordinance is administered by the Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks (Chicago Landmarks Commission or Commission). Pursuant to the Illinois Administrative Review Law, Ill. Comp. Stat., ch. 735, §§ 5/3-103, 5/3-104 (Supp. 1997), judicial review of final decisions of a municipal landmarks commission lies in state circuit court. In this case, we are asked to consider whether a lawsuit filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County seeking judicial review of decisions of the Chicago Landmarks Commission may be removed to federal district court, where the case contains both federal constitutional and state administrative challenges to the Commission's decisions.
I
Respondents International College of Surgeons and the United States Section of the International College of Surgeons ( jointly ICS) own two properties on North Lake Shore Drive in the city of Chicago. In July 1988, the Chicago Landmarks Commission made a preliminary determination that seven buildings on Lake Shore Drive, including two
*Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for the State of Indiana by Jeffrey A. Modisett, Attorney General, and Geoffrey Slaughter and Anthony Scott Chinn, Deputy Attorneys General; for Defenders of Property Rights by Nancie G. Marzulla; and for the National Trust for Historic Preservation et al. by Paul M. Smith, Elizabeth S. Merritt, Laura S. Nelson, and Edith M. Shine.
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