Saying he is concerned Gov. JB Pritzker is “forum and judge shopping,” the chief judge of the county courts in Springfield has refused to allow Pritzker to transfer to Springfield a lawsuit brought in a different downstate county, challenging the authority of the governor to cancel high school sports.
On Jan. 25, Judge John M. Madonia, chief judge for the Seventh Judicial Circuit in Sangamon County, ordered his courts to “decline jurisdiction” over the lawsuit.
“Because Sangamon County courts have consistently made rulings that are favorable to the State of Illinois, in previous litigation challenging governmental restrictions imposed to control the spread of COVID-19, concern has been sufficiently established for this court to believe that Defendant’s (Pritzker’s) motion to change venue to Sangamon County is a not-so-veiled disguise to shop for a friendly forum to decide another COVID dispute involving State of Illinois activity restrictions that have been implemented in response to the continued spread of the coronavirus,” Madonia wrote in his order.
Judge John Madonia, chief judge of the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court in Springfield
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The decision means the case, for now, will head back to LaSalle County, where it was first filed.
The decision comes, however, as Pritzker's administration and the Illinois High School Association, which oversees high school athletics in Illinois, have indicated fall and winter sports may be able to be played in coming weeks.
One of the parents, identified as Lisa M. Moore, of Grundy County, asserts in the lawsuit her son, a track and field athlete, who was class president, a drum major, captain of the cross country team, and was involved in numerous other functions at Seneca High School in LaSalle County, committed suicide in October, after Pritzker ordered high school sports shut down last fall.
The lawsuit affixed the blame for the suicide on the governor and his restrictions.
Other parents claimed in the lawsuit that their children had lapsed into depression, developed anger issues, and refused to leave their houses, as a result of the mental effects they suffered following the governor’s shutdown orders. They also claim the shutdown orders have cost students the opportunity to secure college athletic scholarships.
In the lawsuit, they argue Pritzker violated the rights of equal protection for Illinois high school athletes by shutting down high school sports, in the name of fighting the spread of COVID-19, while allowing college athletics and professional sports to play, albeit before empty stadiums.
They are seeking a court order requiring Pritzker to lift COVID-related restrictions on high school sports to address those concerns over the student athletes’ constitutional rights.
The lawsuit was filed in LaSalle County Circuit Court in downstate Ottawa in north central Illinois.
However, shortly after the lawsuit was filed, the governor, through his lawyers at the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, filed a motion to transfer the case to Sangamon County Circuit Court.
Since last May, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has spent months defending Pritzker against a host of lawsuits brought by business owners, churches and many others, asserting the governor overstepped his authority by issuing executive orders restricting or shutting down a host of social, recreational and economic activities statewide in response to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
To date, few of those lawsuits have found any success.
In more recent weeks, many of those cases have been summarily eliminated in one Sangamon County courtroom, overseen by Sangamon County Circuit Judge Raylene Grischow. The cases, which came from counties throughout the state, including suburban counties near Chicago, were consolidated before Judge Grischow by order of the Illinois Supreme Court.
Grischow had ordered many of the cases dismissed, citing a decision from an Illinois appeals court, which had explicitly ruled Pritzker’s emergency powers to fight COVID are not limited by a 30-day time limit listed in Illinois’ Emergency Management Agency law. That appellate decision has been appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court.
Pritzker had sought the consolidation, arguing the cases all centered on the same legal claims. The Attorney General argued the consolidation was needed to prevent a potential host of different decisions from different counties, while the state was in the process of fighting a pandemic that the Illinois Department of Public Health says has claimed the lives of more than 18,000 Illinois residents.
In the LaSalle County case, however, Judge Madonia noted the case was merely transferred to Sangamon County on a motion by the governor, not by order of the Supreme Court.
In this instance, he said, he, as the chief judge of the Springfield circuit courts, has the discretion to decline to accept the transfer and send the matter back to LaSalle County court.
Madonia said he believed Pritzker had sought to transfer the case, merely to combine it with the other actions challenging the state COVID activity restrictions, and potentially secure a win from Judge Grischow.
Madonia said he did not believe Sangamon County court was the proper jurisdiction to hear the case.
He noted, for instance, LaSalle County and Sangamon County lie in different regions, as drawn by the IDPH for the purpose of imposing regional COVID-19 activity restrictions in response to outbreaks of the virus.
“If this court were to accept jurisdiction as requested, Sangamon County would be deciding a controversy for residents of another county who are not closely related or similarly situated under the specific circumstances of this ruling…” Madonia wrote. “Additionally, the method for establishing jurisdiction in Sangamon County, and the consequences of establishing jurisdiction as Defendant has done, invites cause for concern that the transfer is largely designed to provide a strategical advantage to the moving party (Pritzker) based upon prior rulings of the court.”
Madonia noted the court would not be able to similarly resist an order from the Illinois Supreme Court to transfer the case and consolidate it with the other COVID-related lawsuits pending before Judge Grischow.
In recent days, the Pritzker administration has eased some of the activity restrictions, citing markedly improved COVID-19 infection data in many parts of the state. This may allow some sports, including so-called "high risk" sports, such as basketball and football, to be played this spring, according to published reports.
However, should the state experience another surge of COVID-19 infections later this spring, the activity restrictions could be reimposed under the governor's COVID-19 mitigation framework.