Zero media coverage on this, but on Friday before Memorial Day Gov. JB Pritzker signed yet another COVID Disaster Proclamation, his 28th since the pandemic began over two years ago. Pursuant to those proclamations, he has signed over 112 emergency orders.
The question at this point is why? Why wouldn’t his administration go through normal legislative process for any of the COVID matters that still legitimately need attention?
The General Assembly would no doubt authorize things still reasonably needed — and there are some, which have been in recent emergency orders. They include uncontroversial things like relaxed telehealth rules, healthcare worker background checks and daycare vaccination/testing requirements. Masking is still required in healthcare and congregate care settings. You can see a list of prior emergency orders that have been extended under the latest emergency order which was issued with the Disaster Proclamation.
All that could easily be authorized by the General Assembly, making emergency powers unnecessary. The supermajority Pritzker’s party holds could easily pass a single bill covering everything in the orders, with or without expiration dates.
Continued reliance on emergency power therefore seems like an unnecessary provocation. Illinois is becoming an outlier and fueling further resentment to one-person rule. As reported in Center Square, at least 34 states have some sort of legislative check in place for the duration of emergency executive powers. Twenty-two states empower state lawmakers to end a state of emergency by resolution at any time, while 12 states require state legislatures to approve any extension of emergency declarations. Ohio passed a measure to establish legislative oversight of the executive branch’s use of emergency powers in 2021. Michigan recently repealed the state statute authorizing emergency executive powers. Wisconsin’s emergency order was struck down by its courts early in the pandemic.
But the Pritzker Administration continues to rely on controversial emergency powers instead of getting a rubber stamp from the legislature.
Why?
First, Illinois’ ruling class probably doesn’t care about perceptions of one-person rule. It appears they’ve concluded they can shrug off as “right wingers” anybody who complains about autocracy.
They’re probably right about that in Illinois since the press now ignores it.
Second, you have to wonder if they are thinking just like at Anthony Fauci recently admitted to, which is that the establishment’s primary concern is to firmly cement the political and legal precedent for vast, unilateral administrative power. It’s about hoarding power, in other words.
Fauci last week said that the mask mandate for air travel wasn’t so much about health safety as it was about preserving power. It’s “less about mandates on the plane than it is about who has the right and the authority and the capability of making public health decisions,” Fauci said. “And I believe that the Department of Justice is operating on the principle that decisions that are public health decisions belong with the public health agency — in this case, the CDC. So it’s more of a matter of principle of where the authority lies than it is about whether or not there’s ‘gonna be a mandate on a plane or not.”
Whether deliberate or not, the power-hoarding precedent is indeed being set — a broad and dangerous precedent. Recent emergency orders include claims to authority that are very broad and would be controversial if enforced. Some earlier COVID emergency orders, for example, included power to set price controls, which has gotten little attention. Despite inflation exceeding 12%, price increases are prohibited for goods and services related to COVID treatment. Price controls obviously should not be set by a governor unilaterally.
The ruling majority in the General Assembly certainly hasn’t shown any concern about preserving the separation of powers by limiting emergency rule. They’ve slept through two over years of it.
Surely our courts will react, right?
Puh-leeeez. They’ve turned a blind eye not just to the concept of separation of powers but to a catalog of constitutional infringements inflicted during the pandemic, including infringements on rights to assembly, religion, interstate travel, association, due process and property. The Illinois Supreme Court took up only one case on one of those issues, and that was merely to rule earlier this year that a school mask case was moot.
There’s also the obvious question of whether a true emergency exists. Deaths have dropped precipitously and are now at pandemic lows.
Congressman David Cicilline (D-RI) this week said something that can be nicely applied to how Illinois has handled COVID.
He was talking about a different subject, guns, but his statement could serve as a perfect epitaph for Illinois COVID policy: “Spare me the bullshit about constitutional rights,” he said.