SE Illinois News

GOP gubernatorial candidate State Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) is championing a Sangamon County judge’s recent decision rendering Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s long-running school masks mandate as unconstitutional.

“This ruling is another victory for freedom that confirms what we already knew and have been fighting for since the beginning,” Bailey said in a statement. “Pritzker is a failure and I will continue fighting against his tyrannical mandates and empty threats while standing up for the rights of parents, students, small businesses and every Illinoisan who has suffered under his unconstitutional and unilateral mandates. It’s time to restore common sense to Springfield and freedom and opportunities to every Illinoisan.”

Since Sangamon County Judge Raylene Grischow’s rendered her ruling, roughly half of the state’s more than a thousand school districts have become mask optional grounds.

With the governor wasting little time in filing an appeal to the ruling, Senate Minority Leader Dan McConchie (R-Lake Zurich) is already blasting the administration for trying to subvert the courts in order to maintain his policy by issuing a new mask mandate through the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH).

By a vote of 9-0-2, Joint Commission on Administrative Rules (JCAR) members refused to back his last emergency rule attempt filed by the IDPH. All across the state, protests have broken out as parents’ demand an end to the mask mandates that have persisted for more than two years. 

Grischow’s order establishes the Illinois Department of Public Health as the “supreme authority” in matters of quarantine and isolation, not the governor. She added IDPH is required to adhere to state law as it relates to due process requirements outlined by state law. The governor recently announced plans to lift the state’s general mask mandate by the end of the month, but has been noncommittal about schools.

Since the judge’s ruling went into effect, more than 550 Illinois school districts have gone “fully masks optional” as litigation on the issue remains outstanding. In addition, Grischow has already denied motions in separate cases for there to be class status, meaning the TRO stands to only impact the plaintiffs and the school districts that are part of the lawsuit.

The judge has also recently ordered Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez to appear before the court to face a contempt of court complaint.

"It is ordered that Mr. Pedro Martinez, as agent for the City of Chicago School District #299, and the Board of Education of City of Chicago School District #299, shall personally appear before this court and show cause as to why the defendants should not be held in contempt for failure to abide by and comply with this Court's prior order of February 04, 2022," Grischow’s Feb. 14 order reads.

As part of his legal strategy, attorney Tom DeVore, who has filed suit on behalf of parents against at least 145 school districts, has openly threatened to sue CPS for not obeying a restraining order preventing the district from treating students who unmask differently from those who continue to mask. CPS stands as the country’s third-largest district with more than 347,000 students.

On the day following the Sangamon County court ruling, video captured Hinsdale Central High School officials isolating students who refused to wear masks in the school auditorium. Parents and students told The DuPage Policy Journal the scene played out throughout the day, as was the case across much of the state as more mask-weary students made the decision to attend classes without masks.

DeVore has vowed to start pursuing criminal complaints for contempt of court against school officials who abuse the rights of plaintiffs in the suit.

“If I can confirm that the Hinsdale School District or any school district is isolating children that are plaintiffs in this case, and I know that to be true, I'm going to ask the judge, 'Put somebody in the county jail' as soon as I have the first available opportunity,” DeVore told DuPage Policy Journal. “That's what I'm going to try to do because they cannot do that.”