A southern Illinois judge has granted another temporary restraining order against Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s stay at home order, this time to the owner of a tanning salon who sued the governor, asserting Pritzker had overstepped the bounds of his power in shutting down businesses and activities throughout the state as the centerpiece of the state’s response to COVID-19.
The order, however, applied only to plaintiff James Mainer and his business, HCL Deluxe Tan, even though Mainer and his lawyers had asked for a statewide injunction against the governor.
The order largely mirrors a similar restraining order Clay County Judge Michael McHaney had awarded to State Rep. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia).
Bailey, the first to directly challenge Pritzker’s orders in court, voluntarily surrendered that restraining order, after Pritzker appealed to both the Illinois Fifth District Appellate Court and used the order to petition the Illinois Supreme Court for an order shutting down most legal potential legal challenges to the governor’s powers.
Bailey’s lawsuit, however, remains pending, for now in Southern Illinois federal district court. Pritzker and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul transferred the case there on Thursday, the day before Judge McHaney had been scheduled to hear arguments and potentially rule on Bailey’s motion for summary judgment.
Bailey has asked the federal court to send the case back to Judge McHaney. And on Friday the U.S. Department of Justice entered the court fight, siding with Bailey. The Justice Department said it believed the case did not belong in federal court, and also sided with Bailey on the key questions in his litigation.
That lawsuit, like Mainer’s, centered on Pritzker’s claims the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act gives him the power to essentially continue using emergency powers for as long as he deems necessary, so long as he redeclares a statewide disaster every 30 days.
Attorney Tom DeVore, who represented both Bailey and Mainer, said the governor’s interpretation of that law is incorrect. Instead, they said, the law limits Pritzker to one 30-day declared disaster period, during which he is allowed to exercise the broad, sweeping powers spelled out in the IEMAA law.
After that 30-day period, he must secure authorization from the Illinois General Assembly.
Further, DeVore has argued Pritzker, as governor, lacks power under the law and the Illinois state constitution to forcibly close businesses and order a stop to common societal activities statewide. Rather, they said, that power resides in the Illinois Department of Public Health, and can be challenged by business owners and Illinois residents in court on a case-by-case basis.
DeVore in both lawsuits asserts Pritzker never gave any Illinoisans any of the due process they were granted under Illinois state law and the constitution.
Pritzker has asserted the orders are proper and necessary to stop the spread of COVID-19 and to “save lives.”
The orders, however, have generated a growing mass of resistance statewide, expressed through protests, lawsuits and acts of disobedience. Churches, businesses, state lawmakers and others, including a suburban park district, have filed suit, claiming Pritzker overstepped his authority and has trampled on their legal rights.
And county sheriffs, state’s attorneys, law enforcement and municipal officials across the state have pledged to either not enforce the governor’s orders, or to allow businesses in their communities to open without permission from Pritzker.
Pritzker has responded with threats to strip business owners of the licenses they need to operate; to deny federal funding to cities, counties and law enforcement agencies who defy him; and to allow businesses and law enforcement agencies to be sued by trial lawyers who are among the largest contributors each year to Pritzker’s fellow Illinois Democrats.
In finding against Pritzker and in favor of Mainer during the Friday afternoon hearing, Judge McHaney is reported to have said he did so, in part, because Pritzker’s family has failed to abide by the governor’s own stay at home order. They have traveled to both Florida and Wisconsin – states with significantly looser COVID-19 restrictions than Illinois, under Pritzker.
According to quotes tweeted by reporter Jon Seidel of the Chicago Sun-Times, McHaney said: “When laws do not apply to those who make them, people are not being governed, they are being ruled.”