Lake County Gazette

State Senate Minority Leader Dan McConchie (R-Lake Zurich) is telling Gov. J.B. Pritzker to give up issuing COVID mandates after the Illinois Supreme Court denied his appeal to continue forced masking in schools.

"The Illinois Supreme Court found the Governor’s mask mandate moot and not enforceable thanks to a bipartisan group of legislators who decided to strike it down earlier this month. Pritzker will now have to go back to those same legislators if he wishes to issue a similar order, where he is likely to meet the same fate. The Governor should accept defeat and allow us to begin to govern the way we ought to be — through collaboration of the Legislature and local stakeholders."

The decision means masking in schools is essentially over.

Over 700 of the state’s 859 school districts have gone mask-optional in the weeks since Pritzker’s first loss in state court.

Last Thursday, the Fourth District Appellate Court upheld Sangamon County Judge Raylene Grischow's decision to reject the mask mandate.

Pritzker’s state of emergency mandates for masks and testing in schools were declared "null and void" by Grischow in that judgement.

She said that the governor and his agencies were imposing rules on students without their consent.

After Pritzker’s loss in the appellate court, he attempted to subvert both court rulings by going to the Joint Commission on Administrative Rules (JCAR).

In that emergency rule attempt, submitted by the Illinois Department of Public Health, he failed to gain any support from legislators when the JCAR blocked his efforts in a 9-0-2 ruling.