The Illinois attorney general’s office filed an appellate court brief Wednesday seeking to overturn a southern Illinois judge’s ruling that temporarily exempts a Republican state representative from Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s statewide stay-at-home order.
State Rep. Darren Bailey request for a personal exemption from the order “besides being dangerous — is flawed as a matter of law,” Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office argues in the filing with Illinois 5th District Appellate Court.
State Rep. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, poses at his district office, April 29, 2020, in Louisville, Ill. Bailey challenged in court Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s authority to extend the stay-at-home order.(John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
The filing comes two days after a Clay County judge issued a temporary order freeing Bailey from Pritzker’s directive, which is aimed at slowing the spread of the new coronavirus.
In his lawsuit, Bailey argues that Pritzker has exceeded his legal authority under the state Emergency Management Agency Act by extending the order beyond 30 days.
The AG’s office argued the lawsuit rests on an erroneous reading of the act and ignores the governor’s independent authority under the Illinois Constitution to take the actions Bailey challenged,” the filing says.
“It also contradicts the long-standing practice by numerous governors of issuing multiple and often successive emergency disaster proclamations that have allowed them to continue exercising emergency powers for the duration of the disaster.”
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Pritzker and his two immediate predecessors, Republican Bruce Rauner and Democrat Pat Quinn, issued disaster proclamations for flooding and extended them beyond 30 days, according to the filing. When Pritzker did so last May, “his efforts were celebrated by Bailey himself,” the filing states.
The judge’s order also “improperly disrupts the status quo and places undue weight on the personal harm to Bailey as compared with the immense public health crisis that will occur should Bailey and others cease compliance with the governor’s orders.”
The attorney general’s office also seeks to poke holes in Bailey’s argument that approval from the General Assembly is required to extend a disaster declaration beyond 30 days.
While the legislature gave itself “an express oversight role” in some aspects of emergency management through the Emergency Management Agency Act, the fact that the section that gives the governor the power declare disasters contains no such language “demonstrates that it intended to grant the governor the authority to issue disaster proclamations and use his emergency powers without the limitations suggested by Bailey,” according to the attorney general’s office.
The appeal comes the same day a second GOP lawmaker, Rep. John Cabello of Machesney Park, filed a separate lawsuit in Winnebago County challenging the stay-at-home order on similar grounds to Bailey’s lawsuit.
