Judge blocks schools from enforcing Illinois governor’s COVID mandates, calls them ‘type of evil’

“…Students attending one of the 145 schools across Illinois who are part of a sweeping lawsuit won’t have to wear a mask if they don’t want to, unless they’re given due process. Same goes for certain school staff who don’t want to take weekly COVID-19 tests for not being vaccinated. They must also have due process.

In a 30-page ruling late Friday, Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge Raylene Grischow “deemed null and void” the governor’s emergency rules through the Illinois Department of Public Health concerning COVID-19 mitigations for schools.

“The arbitrary method as to contact tracing and masking in general continue to raise fair questions as to the legality of the Executive Orders in light of violations of healthy children’s substantive due process rights,” Grischow wrote. “Statutory rights have attempted to be bypassed through the issuance of Executive Orders and Emergency Rules … This type of evil is exactly what the law was intended to constrain.”

Schools impacted by litigation brought by more than 700 parents and dozens of school staff are temporarily restrained from enforcing Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s COVID-19 mask and vaccine mandates.

Pritzker’s mandates for masks and exclusion policies in schools and vaccines or testing for teachers have been in place since last fall.

Despite COVID-19 metrics “going in the right direction,” Pritzker on Friday still wouldn’t say when he’ll lift the mask mandates…”