Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker faces still more lawsuits accusing him of overstepping the bounds of his authority in shutting down businesses as one of the primary pieces of his action to combat the spread of COVID-19.
Since late last week, three lawsuits were filed in southern Illinois and in the northwest corner of the state challenging Pritzker’s use of emergency powers under state law.
The latest lawsuits directly challenge Pritzker’s use of executive orders to force businesses to close, potentially forever, without any opportunity for appeal or due process.
The arguments underpinning the lawsuits are essentially the same as those already laid out in prior actions brought by two Republican state lawmakers against Pritzker, a Democrat.
The lawsuits – all brought by clients represented by attorney Tom DeVore, of Greenville – assert Pritzker did not have the authority under the Illinois Emergency Management Act to extend his stay at home order beyond 30 days, without an action by the Illinois General Assembly specifically granting him continued emergency powers.
They also argue the governor ignored state law laying out a process by which the Illinois Department of Public Health is empowered to order the closures – and business owners are granted the opportunity to challenge that closure in court.
Under his stay at home order, Pritzker divided businesses and activities in the state into two categories – essential and “non-essential.” The order directed all “non-essential” businesses to close, and all “non-essential” activities to cease.
The governor has repeatedly said the order was needed to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and “save lives.”
However, since Pritzker announced his intent to extend the order until the end of May, and then did so, criticism, resistance and legal challenges to his actions have steadily mounted since.
County sheriffs and prosecutors around the state have stated an unwillingness to enforce the orders, with some openly questioning their legality.
Other counties and cities have indicated they may choose to allow businesses to reopen in defiance of the governor. Madison County, in the St Louis metropolitan area, has voted to allow its businesses to open.
State lawmakers and local officials have pleaded with the governor to relent and allow businesses to reopen.
But others, including state representatives Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) and John Cabello (R-Machesney Park) have filed lawsuits, asking the courts to declare Pritzker acted illegally in extending the shutdown orders.
Recently, those lawsuits have been joined by the owner of two restaurants in northwest and west central Illinois – known as Poopy’s Pub and Grub in Savanna in Carroll County and Dookie’s Pub and Grub in Clinton County - and a salon owner in Clay County in far southern Illinois.
In those new lawsuits, the business owners assert Pritzker’s orders violated their rights to due process. They argue the Illinois state legislature delegated the power to close businesses in times of pandemic emergency to the IDPH, and not to the governor directly.
“… Nowhere in the great history of our state has this power ever been wielded by the Office of Governor,” DeVore wrote in a memorandum accompanying his filing on behalf of salon owner Sonja Harrison.
“Sonja has no doubts Pritzker will at some point come before this Court with reems of paper, and a team of attorneys, proclaiming he was doing what was necessary to protect the people of this state,” DeVore wrote in the memo. “Whether that might be true or not is of absolutely no consequence whatsoever.
“The separation of powers of this state and this nation will not yield even during times of emergency. It is even more important during testing times that our founding principles be followed.”
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has moved to take both the Dookie’s lawsuit and Harrison’s lawsuit from their respective county courts to federal district courts, asserting both lawsuits present constitutional questions requiring federal courts to weigh in.
According to the Madison County Record’s report, neither DeVore nor his law partner are admitted to try cases in federal court.