By: Mark Glennon*
Gov. JB Pritzker dropped the statewide school mask mandate, Chicago Public Schools finally did the same and COVID infections continue to plummet. And since the most discussed lawsuit on school masking was ruled moot, you might therefore think the school mask saga is over. But it’s not.
First, some of the plaintiffs in the case originally filed in Sangamon County are seeking a declaratory judgement that Gov. JB Pritzker’s statewide mandate was illegal. That court held in their favor. Both an appellate court and the Illinois Supreme Court declined to accept an appeal, ruling the case moot, but the issue of the legality of the mandate was never resolved. The plaintiffs now, therefore, want clear confirmation that the mandate was illegal in order to assure that the controversy does not arise again.
Second, the Chicago Teachers Union has filed an unfair labor practice charge, claiming the mask-optional policy is a clear violation of their Jan. 12 safety agreement. As reported by ABC Chicago, some parents are also upset over the decision, claiming the decision unfairly targets black and brown communities. “It’s racist,” CPS parent Jesu Estrada told ABC.
Third, Pritzker continues to claim other emergency powers and, on March 4 issued yet another executive order. Take a look at it here. It’s extremely complex and lengthy, like his earlier 17 unilateral orders. It is summarized here.
Meanwhile, the General Assembly is moving to further advance union power in Chicago public schools. The House last week passed a bill to authorize Chicago school principals to unionize.
What’s most interesting is an order issued by a Cook County Circuit Court on February 22 that has gone almost entirely unnoticed. The order from the Sangamon County court that went up to the Illinois Supreme Court has gotten all the attention, but the Cook County order may be more significant.
The Cook County court ruled in favor of a seventh grader who was barred from school for refusing to wear a mask and complying with other quarantine mandates issued by Cook County. It’s the next-to-last paragraph of the order that is important. From it:
As this case aptly demonstrates, a quarantine order may be of such brief duration that by the time the matter is tried the quarantine order will have been lapsed and the case will have become moot. Therefore, as a practical matter, the procedure that respects the due process and other constitutional and statutory rights of a respondent would necessitate that the petitioner be prepared to present evidence in the first instance (beyond simply a petition with a declaration appended) through witnesses and documents if the respondent, as appears to be the case here, is not prepared to stipulate to, or otherwise disputes, the salient facts alleged in the petition. The Court may not deprive one of their liberty interests without giving them the opportunity to confront the government’s witnesses and to present their own witnesses.
That’s huge because it essentially signals agreement with the central claim made by plaintiffs in other Illinois school mandate cases, in language far clearer than earlier rulings. That basic claim is that blanket mandates deprive students of due process. Due process demands that they each get an immediate court review on the facts and merits, so a mandate cannot be enforced without that due process during the period before the dispute becomes moot. Excluding students from schools for not wearing a mask is a form of quarantine, according to earlier decisions.
The case is also important because it is from Cook County. Other lawsuits, including the Sangamon County decision, have been ridiculed by Pritzker and the Chicago Teachers Union, with the blame partly being placed on DeVore, the attorney who brought many of them and won the Sangamon County case. “Tom DeVore, a grifter hundreds of miles away from our city, is using CPS families for his own political gain,” said the union in an open letter. “Devore is nothing but a fraud who wants to eliminate an effective tool that we have all fought for, and made sacrifices for to keep everyone in our school communities safe from COVID-19,” it went on.
Pritzker, too, called DeVore a grifter, ridiculed the Sangamon County decision and claimed the appellate court ruled on the basis of politics.
Well, the Cook County case was not brought by DeVore, but by an attorney named Lucas Fuksa of FuksaKhorshid. And the judge who issued the order, Sanjay T. Tailor, is a particularly smart and conscientious judge.
The Cook County order is not binding precedent because the case was settled and never subject to appeal. However, I spoke to Fuksa who believes it will be “persuasive” in other pending and future cases. Count on it being cited in further litigation.
–Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
Other Wirepoints columns on this subject:
- Gov. Pritzker Falsely Claims Victory After Supreme Court Ruling Then Surrenders On Statewide School Mask Mandate
- Appeal Dismissed: Illinois Statewide School Mask Mandate Remains Gone For Now, Probably For Good.
- Gov. JB Pritzker’s false and irresponsible claim that we ‘still have mask requirement in the State of Illinois for schools’
- 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’
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.
The plaintiffs are white trash.
Please do expand.
How can that be? As the plaintiffs are of different nationalities and race. Covid has been a political scam since the beginning and it’s only agenda has been to hurt our children by isolating and deprivation of school. No social events, no physical interactions, loss of learning, loss of food for those needing school breakfast n lunches. The list goes on masking our children has hurt them tremendously. The plaintiffs are not white trash these plaintiffs are HEROS all of them regardless of race.
The CTU just can’t seem to accept that Covid is over can they? They say “they fought for a tool to protect us from Covid”. Yet masking is easily disproven. And what happens when the basis is gone, Covid itself. At that point you can’t deprive students of their right to dress normally. Insisting on masking now is obviously only based on a dying political tactic.
This may be the new dress code for kids like Mort in Bazooka Joe Comics
https://www.facebook.com/bazookabubblegum/photos/meet-the-bazooka-joe-gang-mort-joes-best-bud-mort-has-gone-through-some-changes-/2463277407073521/