A Springfield judge, particularly known for a 2022 ruling that paved the way for the end of Gov. JB Pritzker's statewide schools mask mandate, has been appointed to a Springfield-based state appeals court.
On June 6, the Illinois Supreme Court announced the assignment of Sangamon County Judge Raylene DeWitte Grischow to the Illinois Fourth District Appellate Court.
Grischow was selected by Supreme Court Justice Lisa Holder White and the high court's other justices to replace Justice John W. Turner on the Fourth District Appellate Court. Turner is set to retire July 5.
Grischow's appointment is effective July 8, and will continue until further order of the state Supreme Court.
“Judge Raylene DeWitte Grischow will make an outstanding addition to the Appellate Court,”said Holder White in a statement announcing the appointment. “She is an accomplished, hardworking, community-minded person who maintains the highest ethical standards. I am confident she will thrive at the appellate level.”
Holder White, one of only two Republican justices on the state Supreme Court, serves as the justice selected from the counties within the state's Fourth Judicial District, which includes Springfield, Sangamon County, McLean County, Peoria County and 38 other counties in central, western and northwestern Illinois. Holder White had previously served on the Fourth District Appellate Court, as well.
According to the release from the state Supreme Court, Grischow has served as a circuit judge in the state's Seventh Circuit, which includes Sangamon County for five years. She was appointed in 2019 and then elected in 2020. She ran in the contest as a Republican.
Before becoming a judge, Grischow worked as an attorney at the firm of Hinshaw & Culbertson from 2002-2019 in the firm's government practice group.
Grischow achieved statewide notoriety in 2022 when she delivered a high-profile decision in the legal challenge brought against Pritzker's Covid school mask mandate.
Beginning in 2021, parents and others launched legal challenges to Pritzker's decision to invoke the state's emergency management law to continuously issue new executive orders underpinning "emergency rules" to require students to wear masks in Illinois schools. Such mandates were heavily backed by teachers unions, who were later revealed to have influenced guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control under President Joe Biden to support continued masking of children.
Those lawsuits were prominently led by southern Illinois attorney Tom DeVore, who later ran as the Republican nominee for Illinois Attorney General. He lost to Democrat Attorney General Kwame Raoul in 2022.
In a ruling issued in early February 2022, Grischow rejected the arguments from Raoul's office that Pritzker had legally issued the "emergency rules."
Pritzker and Raoul had argued constitutional rights to due process shouldn't apply when addressing public health emergencies amid a time of pandemic, because requiring the state and school districts to comply with parents' and students' due process rights, as mandated within the state's public health law, would be too "burdensome."
They argued the governor's pandemic powers are broad and sweeping and not constrained by due process rights spelled out in state laws, other than the state's emergency management law.
In her ruling, Grischow notably specifically rejected the contention that Prtizker's pandemic powers should be considered "limitless."
Grischow ruled Pritzker cannot simply use executive orders under the Illinois Emergency Management Act to direct state agencies to issue rules they are not authorized by law to issue, as an end-run around due process rights otherwise ensconced in law.
Rather, following Grischow's ruling, a bipartisan of state lawmakers voted 9-0 to allow Pritzker's "emergency rules" to expire and not reissue them. In casting those votes, some members of the commission said they were reluctant to support issuing rules that a judge had ruled to be illegal.
Seizing on that action by lawmakers, the Fourth District appeals court ruled Pritzker's rules no longer existed, so there was no need to rule on whether to overturn Grischow's order blocking the school mask mandate.
The Illinois Supreme Court then quickly followed suit, declaring the controversy moot, because the rules had expired.
Within hours of the Illinois Supreme Court ending the legal challenge to his authority, Prizker announced he was ending the mask mandate for Illinois schools at the end of February 2022. Pritzker and his allies claimed the appeals courts' refusal to rule on the controversy meant he retained the authority to issue future mask mandates and "emergency rules" as he deems necessary under the emergency management law.
Two Republican justices on the Illinois Supreme Court at the time chided the court's Democratic majority for punting on the measure, saying the high court was wrong to leave unanswered the important constitutional and legal question concerning the limits of the governor's powers to essentially rule the state by executive order after declaring a public health emergency.
As a judge in Sangamon County, Grischow also notably rejected a bid by pro-business groups to knock from the ballot a state constitutional amendment that enshrined union power into the state constitution and likely permanently banned the state or any units of local government from becoming "right to work" jurisdiction, or otherwise limit the ability of unions to form and collectively bargain.
That measure, known as Amendment 1, was approved by voters.
In accepting her new assignment to the Fourth District Appellate Court, Grischow said in a prepared statement: “I want to thank Justice Lisa Holder White and the Supreme Court for having confidence in me and providing me with this amazing opportunity. I am excited to embrace this new position and work with the esteemed justices of the Fourth District Appellate Court.”