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ILLINOIS
HAS BEEN SUBJECT TO PRITZKER’S EMERGENCY POWERS FOR NEARLY 22 MONTHS.
WHERE DOES THIS POWER COME FROM?
Illinois Policy Institute/
Joe Tabor
Illinois’ emergency management statute
grants the governor broad powers to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, and
the General Assembly has shown no interest in amending it.
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 Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic nearly 22 months ago, Gov. J.B.
Pritzker has exercised powers granted to him by state law to enact policies
during states of emergency.
Using these powers, Pritzker has issued over 100 executive orders, including
limiting the size of public gatherings, suspending enforcement of certain laws
and agency operations, closing schools and certain businesses, ordering
residents to stay at home, issuing mask mandates, and more recently, requiring
vaccinations for most school employees, health care workers, and day care
workers, among others.
Where do those executive powers come from? And what is or isn’t allowed?
While the federal government is a government of enumerated powers – it can only
exercise the powers specifically granted to it by the U.S. Constitution – state
governments retain what is known as “police powers” to protect the welfare,
safety and health of their residents, in keeping with the 10th Amendment of the
U.S. Constitution.
This system means that states have more flexibility to act without running up
against constitutional barriers. It also means states, not the federal
government, have the power to tighten or loosen the restrictions ordered by
state governors.
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The governor’s
authority to issue the recent series of COVID-19 executive orders
comes from Section 7 of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency
Act. In the case of a disaster such as a viral epidemic, the
governor can issue a proclamation declaring that disaster, allowing
him to exercise the emergency powers authorized in the act for a
period of up to 30 days.
Despite legal challenges, Pritzker has been able to extend those
powers by reissuing disaster proclamations each time they expired.
In December 2020, a Sangamon County judge vacated a Clay County
court’s ruling striking down Pritzker’s extended emergency orders.
In her ruling, the Sangamon County judge cited an Illinois 2nd
District Appellate Court ruling against FoxFire Tavern, a restaurant
that challenged Pritzker’s ban on indoor dining. The Sangamon County
court noted the appellate court had found the IEMAA allows the
governor to issue successive disaster declarations over the course
of the same ongoing disaster. The Illinois Supreme Court then
rejected Foxfire’s appeal in May 2021.
Illinois lands in the middle of the pack when it comes to the degree
of latitude states give their governors in exercising emergency
powers, according to a report by the Maine Policy Institute. Several
states have been moving to limit executive powers in the wake of
widespread use of emergency executive orders in addressing the
COVID-19 pandemic, but the General Assembly has so far shown little
appetite for asserting itself over Pritzker’s emergency powers in
the Prairie State. |
