It’s been so long now that most of the media and many Illinoisans no longer care that Gov. J.B. Pritzker continues to maintain a Covid disaster declaration for all of Illinois’ 102 counties. And with the elections out of the way, many may care even less.
What began as a 30-day proclamation back on March 12, 2020 has turned into 979 consecutive days of special executive powers for the governor. Pritzker just declared the 36th straight disaster declaration on Nov. 10 and that will go on for another 28 days. Until the next one.
With that declaration comes continued executive powers for Pritzker to make all kinds of unilateral decisions regarding the economy, schools, health and basic civil rights – in the name of an emergency – should he alone deem them necessary.
It was those powers that allowed the governor to unilaterally shut down many businesses during the pandemic while keeping others open. Those same powers let him anoint some workers as “essential” while others were deemed “non-essential.” They also gave him the ability to require masks everywhere across the entire state and in some cases, force vaccinations. And of course, school closures and remote learning were an outcome of those emergency powers. Overall, Illinoisans lived under some of the most draconian emergency rules in the country.
All those decisions were made unilaterally by the governor, with no checks and balances from the legislature.
Even if one thinks the governor should have had those powers early on, there’s no justification for him to maintain those powers today. As we’ve argued for some time now, every one of Illinois’ neighboring states gave up the use of emergency powers months or years ago. Wisconsin ended their powers more than 1.5 years ago while Michigan ended theirs more than two years ago. And the rest of our neighbors ended theirs at least nine months ago.
In Michigan and Wisconsin, the courts stepped in to end the emergency powers. But in the rest of the states, they simply realized that Covid was no longer a pandemic and it made no sense for their governors to retain unilateral, executive-order powers.
The pandemic has ended here, as well, with fatalities bottoming out long ago. The virus has become endemic, yet the governor continues the “emergency. ”From Wirepoints’ Covid page:
To those who support Pritzker’s continued use of emergency declarations – just think beyond the next few years. Are you comfortable with someone on the opposite end of the political aisle using executive orders the way the Governor is? Making policy decisions – with no checks or balances – that you disagree with?
No governor of either party should have such power. That’s the whole reason for having a legislative branch. But Gov. Pritzker has set a precedent. And with no one in the media or within the corporate establishment calling out his overreach, expect Illinois’ future leaders to further abuse the standard he’s set.