Political newsletter Capitol Fax is reporting that the Joint Committee of Administrative Rules (JCAR) of the Illinois legislature today voted to suspend the Pritzker Administration’s attempt to reissue emergency rules that would have required school districts to enforce the Governor’s school mask mandate despite a recent court ruling. JCAR blocked the emergency rules in a bipartisan 9-0-2 vote.
The GOP issued a statement, saying “Today, the Joint Committee of Administrative Rules made it clear that we would not accept the Governor’s attempts to go above a court ruling made by a co-equal branch of government.
“Instead of allowing our judicial system to work through its process, the Governor tried to double down on his unilateral approach to COVID-19 mitigations by reissuing the same exact rules that a Sangamon County judge nullified earlier this month. This move was both bad government and dangerous to the rule of law as it ignored the court’s ruling on due process.
“In his quest for power and control, Pritzker and his Administration was willing to further the chaos and confusion for schools throughout the state. With this bipartisan vote, I hope that the Governor finally recognizes that his go-it-alone tactic is not in the best interest of our state or its people.”
According to Capitol Fax, Democrats on JCAR plan to wait until the appellate court rules on a temporary restraining order issued by a downstate judge earlier this month to revisit the issue. The appellate ruling is expected Thursday.
