Split Rulings on COVID-19 Executive Orders

July 6, 2020

Court battles are continuing over Governor J.B. Pritzker’s legal authority in issuing stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last Thursday, a judge in Clay County ruled in favor of a Republican legislator in his lawsuit against the Governor. The state will appeal that ruling. It is not immediately clear what the lower court ruling will mean for Illinoisans, who are no longer under the same stay-at-home order that was in place when the legislator filed the suit.

On the same day, a federal judge ruled against the Illinois Republican Party, which sued the Governor claiming he violated the GOP’s constitutional rights to assemble – in groups of more than 10 – during the pandemic. Then on Saturday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh denied an emergency appeal submitted by the GOP, but the Republican Party is continuing to push the suit in the lower courts.