Plans for the project are bogged down in federal court. A lawsuit has been filed by the group Friends of the Parks and two individuals contending the proposed site near Lake Michigan violates the public trust. The lawsuit argues that the Park District and the city do not have the power to authorize the project without prior approval from the Illinois General Assembly because the museum would be built on land that remains a protected waterway — it was part of Lake Michigan until being filled in during the 1920s — and should be preserved as natural open space.