By: Mark Glennon*
The Illinois Supreme Court on Friday rejected the Pritzker Administration’s request to appeal a lower appellate ruling, thereby effectively ending the statewide school mask mandate. Individual school districts became free across Illinois to decide for themselves on school masks. After the ruling, Pritzker said his mandate will end on Monday, a mandate he has claimed is legal and still effective despite lower court rulings to the contrary.
The Pritzker Administration’s response to the Supreme Court’s order is particularly deceitful in two ways.
First, in his written statement, Pritzker said, “I’m gratified that the Supreme Court vacated the lower court’s restraining order, meaning that if a school mask mandate needs to go into effect in the future, we continue to have that authority.”
That’s simply not true. The court did not reverse the ruling by the lower courts or indicate in any way that Pritzker has that future authority. Any such later effort by Pritzker would face the same issues on which Pritzker lost in the initial ruling by a lower court on February 4, unless the facts change.
All the Supreme Court did, aside from rejecting Pritzker’s request for permission to appeal, is vacate a temporary restraining order that was issued in favor of certain named plaintiffs** as part of the February 4 ruling. Vacating that restraining order was appropriate, the Supreme Court said, because the whole case is moot. That may be interpreted to mean it’s as if the lower court’s decision was never made and that it cannot be cited as precedent in future cases. However, it does not in any way mean that the lower court’s conclusions were wrong.
The attorney for the plaintiffs, Tom DeVore, does’t even think the new ruling goes that far. “Even though the temporary restraining order is not in effect, [the lower court judge’s] legal analysis is still the law of the state because neither the appellate court or the supreme court overruled her legal analysis,” attorney DeVore told The Center Square Friday evening.
(Listen to our extended interview with DeVore taped on Thursday, before the new ruling. He is also a candidate for Illinois Attorney General, which we also discuss.)
In any event, Pritzker has no basis whatsoever for claiming that “it’s clear that if a school mask mandate needs to go into effect in the future, we continue to have that authority.” If he tried it again he would be back in court again.
Pritzker’s Friday statement went on to say, “I’m also extremely pleased to say that because the CDC has recommended that masks are needed only in areas of high transmission, the State of Illinois will move forward to remove our school mask mandate, effective Monday.”
From that, we are apparently supposed to believe that he was merely following the CDC’s recommendations in dropping his mandate.
But that doesn’t fit. The new CDC guidance, issued on Friday, says schools should continue to require masks if they are in high risk areas shown in orange on their map. Parts of Illinois are still in those high risk areas, but Pritzker is dropping his mandate for the whole state.
What actually happened is he got beat and ran out of excuses. He had earlier called DeVore a “grifter,” ridiculed the lower court judge for “cultivating chaos,” then said the intermediate appellate court was influenced by politics. But the Supreme Court was strike three.
He was wrong on the law, wrong on the science behind masking and wrong on the politics which he should have seen had turned sharply against school masking at least several weeks ago.
So he cut bait. Better late than never.
Over 93% of Illinois school districts have gone mask optional. Chicago remains among the few still mandating masks on kids.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
**The individual, named plaintiffs might continue their case against school districts that now opt to keep school masking, which include Chicago, though exactly what they might do is unclear at this point. They claim to have separate grounds for their case against those school districts, which were never fully adjudicated on the merits. The Supreme Court ruling sent the case back to the lower courts to resolve remaining issues.
More from Wirepoints about the mask mandate on Illinois schoolchildren:
- The Mask Is Off: Illinois Has No Science Behind Its School Masking Mandate
- Illinois And Chicago Inexplicably Press On With Senseless ‘Kids-Last COVID Policy’
- Gov. JB Pritzker’s false and irresponsible claim that we ‘still have mask requirement in the State of Illinois for schools’
- Politics Getting Bad For Those Using Children As Human Covid Shields
- The Better Government Association’s Fact-Check On Masking School Kids is Wrong And Irresponsible
- Two facts parents should know as the outrage over school mask mandates heats up
- Americans in 39 states aren’t subjected to a mask mandate. Why are Illinoisans?
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Please tell me something that Round boy has been right about?
in general, it would seem the end to mask mandates essentially ends jbs covid emergency orders.Then what happens to all the giant covid grant $bureaucracy/ jobs$ built up around covid–all the $100 of millions spent on contact tracers, testing, substitutes to cover all guaranteed paid sick days, and on and on? I think this is mostly what jbs scarred of
JB is a complete moron. Of that there is no doubt. However, he is just smart enough to know many of his supporters have the intellectual capacity of a turnip and need his promise of freebies… So, he is hoping that his constituents cannot read and will never understand his deceit…
He’s a winner alright.
Could Pritzker be the lone down vote?
The lawlessness of Pritzker on something as simple as masks shows he is unfit to lead Illinois. The man is a bully.
This is a very well-written piece.
Do not put a child in daycare that requires a mask.
It is not good for speech and social development and other reasons.
Life and learning for the deaf and hearing impaired has been a horror for the last two years. I knew a young man, severely hard of hearing, from China. In the days before Covid he learned English and was quite fluent. He relied heavily on lip-reading in spite of hearing aids for both ears. I cannot imagine how the mandates have set him back.
Mark, can you help us fight the mask mandate in daycares?
It’s just so wicked that little children are forced into these masks. Seriously wicked.
Let’s see what JB’s new rules are on Monday. I doubt they will have a mask mandate, leaving it up to the daycare centers.
Who is the softball down voting here?
Pritzker is 1000% clueless, I’ll bet someone told him he won and or wrote the statement for him
Just heard yesterday’s Dr Murphy’s segment on WGN…did my ears deceive me or did he actually say “the CDC has finally caught up” to the “draconian” mask mandates?! He is most definitely singing a different tune, hopefully his fearful followers will start to awaken.
Pritzker will do whatever it takes as long as he gets what he wants when it’s over.
JB takes his orders from his buddy Bill Gates when he’s in Florida at his horse estate. Too bad you lost this round el gordo.
He’s such a weinnie just trying to get re-elected! Hope he doesn’t succeed.
Give is up. Since March of 2020 the mask issue was moot.
There was never any damn science in this whole thing.
It’s all B.S. and we all know it.
Only fools think otherwise.
Hell, we have science on our side and the fear mongers and Kool-Aide drinkers
living under the rock or in their mommies basement still in the same underwear
they were in back in 2020 are going to be pasty white for ten more years.
Live and stop listening to a man who is morbidly obese!
You do such a great job explaining these things. Thank you so much!
So true. Thank you, Mark and Ted at Wirepoints !
JB’s ego is as big as his (you fill in the blank). He can’t admit he got his butt kicked, and his lies are getting increasingly more obvious. Everyone was playing politics but him-yeah, right! Actually, the Supreme Court did him a favor and gave him cover with the teachers unions; now he doesn’t have to try enforcing an increasingly unpopular mask mandate in an election year. Had they reinstated the mandate, he would have looked like General Custer at the Little Big Horn, with almost all other states abandoning masks in schools and even the CDC backing off.
JB views COVID more as a measure of social status than health.
JB is not a leader. Never has been. He’s never been on the forefront of anything, let alone the COVID front. He is merely shadowing the Dem operatives in DC.
JB no doubt saw the internal polling taken by his party showing that they are on the wrong side and needed to change course: https://www.sfgate.com/national-politics/article/Democrats-polling-reveals-COVID-warning-16927032.php
DeVore could actually be a grifter, time will tell. However, he deserves a chance to show if he’s the real deal because Kwame Raoul is a grifter, as is Pritzker. Raoul has been invisible and he’s the AG! There are so many areas he could be focusing on. He even makes Lisa Madigan look good by comparison. We are in desperate need for leadership in this state. Hopefully a sane, smart candidate gets the nomination to oppose Pritzker. Irvin seems like an empty suit, and a Democrat in sheep’s clothing. We need someone with fortitude, toughness, and discipline who’s willing… Read more »
You are very right about Irvin being an empty suit. The typical Illinois ‘Republican.’ IOW a Democrat in sheep’s clothing.
Rauner tried and failed, why do you think anyone else will succeed?
Yep, just like Bill Clinton, only dumber and unable to get a hot girl.
JB is about licking his finger and sticking it up in the air to see how the politics
are blowing that day.
Typical Democrat.
I have a dream where all the Chicago public school science teachers really do ‘follow the science’ and walk out until masks are optional and not mandated. That might convince me you’re a qualified science teacher. Like I said it’s a dream….
Is Chicago’s schools free of masks? No. The children are prisoners of the CTU until August. What’s the science behind that? Chicago isn’t in a high risk area, according to the map. It’s political science. Legal corruption, pure and simple.
Union corruption. Remember CTU when voting on Constitutional amendment in November. That atrocity deserves to be killed worse than progressive income tax.
I agree 100%. Amendment 1 has to be voted down. It’s pretty clear that the unions in Chicago don’t need any more power. We don’t need anything to change the Illinois constitution unless it’s for the better this would not be for the better. It would cost us all immensely just like the progressive tax.
I hope the CTU reaps what it sows and the teachers can wear masks forever. Even my most covid paranoid friends have had enough. Enjoy wearing them in perpetuity. Maybe require N95’s. Those will be comfortable 7 hours a day. “If it prevents even one case it’s worth it”
Pritzker may have simply been playing to his base – So much of Pritzker’s political base sees the mask as a talisman, and they have a need to always virtue signal. The mask was it.
In JB’s mind 2 negatives makes a positive. There have been so many negatives initiated by him that all he sees are positives (In his Mind only).
The Dems used the pandemic to control us in so many ways (in the name of “science”). I don’t think they realize that that is what they will forever be associated with going forward. Good luck in the mid-terms Dems.
The man simply cannot accept anyone telling him what to do. It is a serious character flaw. He looks down on everyone, belittling those who dare disagree. The arrogant demeanor, authoritarian tone and petulant behavior indicate a man on a power trip. He won’t acknowledge any evidence that contradicts his beliefs. Get ready for more heavy handed ruling from the man who would be king.
Much to my surprise it seems J. B. might be a Wirepoints kind of guy at heart from your description.
Your down voting reinforces my argument. I watch gleefully expecting others here to add to that point of view even more by their own down voting.
Could you put aside your glee and provide examples of times Wirepoints or commenters advocated for more government control of the population?
My comment had nothing to do with the topic you’ve mentioned and was meant only to state that I saw it absolutely ironic to heap insults on J. B. for his rock-solid beliefs and not see the same bad sides of it displayed with regularity by many commenters here. I wasn’t trying at all to promote Democrat politics. Its his refusal to alter a point of view in spite of good reasons to do so and the same thing here that I find disagreeable.
Rich, is that you? 😉 Go back to capfax.
James – remind me to warn others away from majoring education, not only for the lack of rigor but also for the naïveté that obtains. Rock solid beliefs? You have got to be kidding. JB is a politician, and his list of rock solid beliefs, like many others of his kind, is remarkably small. I keep waiting for some form of rigor from you but it appears emotionalism is all that we get.
That’s mostly what we all do here—give emotional responses, sad to say. The imaginary age of reason has given way to theatrics, or haven’t you noticed?
No your responses are devoid of rigor and often are little more than complaints about the mindset of posters. I am curious. Just what do you really learn as an education major? Is the study rigorous? Is there a need for inductive reasoning? Hashing through lots of data? Something other than memorizing pedagogy? Lots of study over evil isms? I ask because both of my parents went to Illinois State as education majors. They were not particularly good students but did comprehend the need to focus on facts as opposed to a narrative. As for myself, I was in an… Read more »
Blah, blah, blah. Find sonene who cares.
There are solutions for ED. There is hope. Don’t let that condition spoil your mood day in and day out.
There’s even a body of work suggesting it can protect you from COVID and work against negative effects of the clot shot.
You don’t need to live in fear and shame.
Mark, here’s a clear case of a common posting on this stellar website, nothing said of substance and literally nothing is offered except irrelevant denigration. Is this the type of commenter you want to post here? If not, get some hutzpah and say so.
James, censorship isn’t really our thing. We’ve regularly said that just name-calling is neither useful nor effective, and we are lucky to have mostly substantive comments here. But some choose otherwise. There is some value in all comments just as a barometer of opinion. I would be cautioius even about that, however, because the number of regular commenters here is a fraction of one percent of our readers.
Okay, fine and I get it. But, some here are absolutely contemptible in what they say and especially the outrageously stupid ways they say it. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and hallelujah for that. Still, having a sense of decorum and moderation of speech is a measure of adulthood or at least used to be. Some here never seemed to have been taught—or at least grasped—that concept and continue talking as if they were still in junior high school. That’s what you get when people are not required to list their legal name and can phony-up any pseudonym they… Read more »
We just don’t belong in civil society. If only you could take away our freedom of speech, the world would be so much better.
Now go home and get your shine box!
I don’t mind your comments james.
“I would be cautious even about that, however, because the number of regular commenters here is a fraction of one percent of our readers.” I think that Wirepoints is the Illinois-focused conservative alternative to progressive Twitter. I’m pretty sure that some influential people in Chicago/IL politics read this website, and probably the comments section too. Hopefully some of the ideas and policy suggestions discussed here become absorbed into the consciousness of these policy makers. And even if only a handful of ideas first discussed here make it into the broader IL GOP policy that would be a success. For example,… Read more »
James, we’ve been insulted plenty of times, which is fine, but saying JB is a Wirepoints kind of guy takes the cake. We are proud to be among what he has called carnival barkers and “spelunkers searching for misery” (whatever the hell that means).
“He won’t acknowledge any evidence that contradicts his beliefs.”
It appeared to me that James was drawing this parallel behavior of Pritzker and many of your WP commenters. Seems spot on to me.
It’s almost the end of month. That govt check should be here soon! So exciting!
A simple thank you to the rest of us is all that’s needed. Then be on your way.
Another one of the typical WP commenters that don’t/can’t address the point of a differing post and only attempt childish taunts. Way to stay on brand.
Next time make sure you throw a comment in about JB’s weight. That’s how you truly get upvotes from your intellectually stunted friends.
As a regular contributor, I fail to see your point.
Living off the backs of others is indeed a life well lived. Don’t you think?
But, that’s essentially true of every person everywhere. You give your labor in exchange for the ability to buy the products and services provided by the labor of other people. If there is an exception it has be be a rarity, indeed.
JB is a known liar. Where are the lies in the comment sections here?
I’m only talking about the rock-hard mindset of the majority of regular commenters here. Its likely nobody could change the essence of their points of view, always finding the perfect supposed conspiracies to support their conclusions.. Consequently, they want to vent rather than persuade. All they need is the affirmation of others readily found as agreeable partners here. Then, it becomes a set of people taking on something akin to mob mentality. My view is that might doesn’t necessarily make what’s said or done right. By the way, in general I don’t hold such a firm opinion about you nor… Read more »
Oh yeah..def Rich. Wordy.
No need to put in any dreadful time-consuming effort into your response here, Jane. Every thought everywhere ought to be expressed in five words or less, don’t you think?
James, you take umbrage at Jane’s response, yet you devolve into sarcasm.
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
I agree. I have flaws. Mea Culpa. I think I might have dated Mea because I do know her.
On the other hand, not knowing the real meaning of the unstated meaning her five words I interpreted it as the kind of slam that generally comes my way here. So, how would you have handled it with that interpretation? Should I be satisfied to be among her favored pin-cushions and ignore it? Again, if YOU received a vague message that seemed a slam would you be satisfied not to retort in kind? If so, you are a rare one, indeed!
I would have ignored it – as I have ignored other comments that either I didn’t understand or found offensive. Though I have to admit, occasionally I will ask for clarification. Only Jane knows what she meant by her five words and it’s unlikely she’ll explain. Just say’n.
Yes, I was right; you are a rare commenter here where tempers generally rule over consideration. Thanks for your nice response otherwise.
So, instead of this comment section being a repository if questions, further comments on the subject at hand, it has devolved into a “I know you are, but what am I?” level debate. Sorry, James, you don’t get to take umbrage at the comments directed at you (even if you dismiss them as being expected), when for all intents and purposes, you lobbed a grenade into the crowd and walked away. The backhanded “JB is a wirepoints kind of guy” insult did exactly what you wanted it to, and then you complained that we live in a sycophantic echochamber. You… Read more »
I think people who are mature psychologically ought to be able to consider viewpoints counter to their own, truly ponder them and answer with politeness or not at all. That generally seems to a lost art in American society probably for various reasons, but it leads to tunnel-vision thinking and looking more for reinforcement from like-minded people than truly searching for a wider set of societal acceptance. All I can hope to do as something of a rebel here is offer that counter viewpoint you’d otherwise likely not even know. Make of it what you will but the truly juvenile,… Read more »
I believe I have an explanation for Jane’s five word comment. S/he earlier commented: “Rich, is that you? Go back to capfax.” Apparently Jane believes that you are Rich: “Oh yeah..def Rich. Wordy.”
Jane appears to believe you’re a person s/he identifies as Rich.
Mystery solved!
Okay, you’re probably right. For me it was simply too terse to fully understand. So, taking it as the usual slam I responded in kind for better or worse.