A state agency under the control of Gov. JB Pritzker has issued a new threat against those resisting the governor’s emergency powers, this time warning local law enforcement agencies that refuse to enforce the governor’s COVID shutdown orders could lose both their legal protection from lawsuits and be denied their federal funds by the governor.
On May 20, the Illinois Emergency Management Agency issued a memorandum to state and local law enforcement agencies, designated by state law as emergency services and emergence management agencies.
The memo comes on the heels of a growing wave of resistance to the emergency powers deployed by Pritzker in response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The resistance has come in the form of business owners who have reopened without state clearance, and in the form of lawsuits, asserting the governor has overstepped the bounds of his constitutional authority and his orders are therefore invalid.
As opposition has grown, the resistance has been joined by a mounting numbers of county sheriffs, state’s attorneys and other local law enforcement agencies who have vowed to not enforce the governor’s orders against those in defiance.
In recent days, Pritzker has threatened business owners with fines and license revocations. He has also indicated business owners who open too soon could find themselves the target of potentially ruinous personal injury lawsuits from the trial lawyers who donate voluminous funds each election cycle to Pritzker’s allies in the Democratic Party.
That implied threat was made all but explicit by some of the state’s leading trial lawyers, who also urged all business owners to abide by the governor’s orders and indicated they stood ready to “protect” Illinoisans from renegade business owners.
The governor has further threatened to withhold federal emergency assistance funds from communities and counties that encourage businesses and other organizations to open in defiance of his COVID orders.
Now, the Pritzker administration has also aimed threats at those law enforcement agencies who aren’t willing to fine or forcibly close businesses and others in their region who defy Pritzker’s executive orders.
In the memo, first reported by Mark Maxwell of WCIA TV in Champaign, the IEMA asserts enforcement of the executive orders isn’t necessarily at the discretion of local law enforcement agencies.
The local agencies “are statutorily required to execute and enforce” the executive orders.
“It is IEMA’s view that the Governor’s EO takes precedence over any home-rule authority,” the IEMA wrote.
Those agencies that still won’t enforce the orders could suffer “consequences,” the IEMA warned.
The IEMA memo specifically references legal immunity protections granted by state law to law enforcement agencies and those agencies “Principal Executive Officer” and “any agents” participating in emergency response activities.
“However, the immunity does not apply in cases of gross negligence or willful misconduct,” the memo states. “Depending on the circumstances, immunity may not apply to a Principal Executive Officer or an agent employee … should it be determined that failure to enforce the (executive orders) resulted in gross negligence or willful misconduct.”
This echoes the implied and explicit lawsuit threats against business owners.
At the same time, the IEMA said Pritzker could opt to cut off the flow of federal funds administered by the state through the so-called Public Assistance Program to the local agencies, should they continue to resist. To receive the funds, the local agencies sign an agreement committing to “comply with all applicable federal and State laws, regulations and policies.”
The memo asserts Pritzker’s COVID orders number among those “laws, regulations and policies.”
“Failure to execute or enforce the EO could be considered noncompliance with the Agreement condition to comply with all applicable State laws, regulations and policies thus placing the applicant’s funding in jeopardy,” IEMA wrote.