A suburban Republican Illinois state lawmaker has asked the federal Department of Justice to review Gov. JB Pritzker’s stay at home orders, and intervene to stop what the lawmaker called the governor’s “overreaching and unconstitutional directives.”
On May 20, State Rep. David McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills) sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr specifically requesting the Department of Justice “investigate” Pritzker’s orders related to COVID-19, to determine if they meet constitutional muster.
“We ask that you remind Illinois Gov. Pritzker that the Constitution is not suspended in times of crisis,” McSweeney wrote.
In the letter, first obtained and published by the Northwest Herald newspaper and other Shaw Media publications, McSweeney focuses on various orders issued by Pritzker, and particularly on the governor’s enforcement threats concerning his so-called stay at home order and potentially long lasting limits on the size of religious gatherings.
Pritzker has issued, revised and extended the orders over various points since declaring the state a disaster in early March because of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Illinois.
As part of that emergency response, Pritzker has invoked emergency powers to close a wide range of businesses and leave churches and other religious houses of worship empty for months. The orders also heavily restricted a wide range of other common societal activities.
Pritzker’s continued use of emergency powers has drawn a rising tide of opposition throughout the state, as businesses that have been forbidden from operating close forever and unemployment has soared to levels not seen since the Great Depression.
That opposition has generated protests, but also a slew of lawsuits from business owners, state lawmakers and churches, among others, contesting the governor’s ability to govern the state through executive orders.
Pritzker has asserted an Illinois state law gives him the ability to rule by executive order for as long as he deems the emergency conditions exist. His opponents, however, say the law should have limited him to use emergency powers for 30 days. After that, they’ve said, the governor must secure special authorization from state lawmakers.
In response to the mounting resistance, Pritzker has leveled threats against business owners who reopen their shops and restaurants sooner than the governor believes is appropriate to sustain his efforts to staunch the spread of COVID-19. Specifically, he has threatened them with potentially steep fines, and has threatened to revoke the business and professional licenses they need to legally conduct business in Illinois in a wide range of professions and industries.
The governor has also leveled threats against communities that encourage business owners to reopen, saying he would withhold federal funds, including emergency assistance funds, from those communities and counties.
McSweeney drew attention to Pritzker’s threats in his letter, saying they are improper actions to “deprive Illinois citizens of necessary federal emergency funding” and “to deprive Illinois citizens of their livelihood without due process.”
McSweeney also pointed to Pritzker’s stated intention to limit all gatherings, including religious worship services, to no more than 50 people “until there is a vaccine” or “highly effective treatment” for COVID-19.
“That means that it could be a year, or more, until many religious institutions are allowed to have services again,” McSweeney said. “This is a clear violation of our First Amendment rights concerning free exercise of religion.”
Recently, the Department of Justice warned California Gov. Gavin Newsom against continuing his similar restrictions on the ability of faith communities to gather for worship and prayer services. The letter warns against treating religious organizations differently from secular businesses and other organizations, which that state has allowed to operate amid the pandemic.
In Illinois, churches have used such reasoning to sue Pritzker to challenge his order. To date, however, two federal judges and a federal appeals panel have indicated their support for the governor’s order. They declined to compare churches to big box retail stores and supermarkets. Instead, they said Pritzker’s order does not appear to them to be hostile to religion, because the order also closed down theaters and stadiums, which they said are more like a church’s worship services than are supermarkets and stores like Walmart and Target, or large home improvement stores, like Home Depot, Lowes and Menards.