Justice Department joins push against Illinois coronavirus restrictions
Posted by Riverbender on May 23, 2020, 10:29 am
Well what do you know? The Democrats of Illinois are making national news headlines.
The Justice Department is adding its support to a lawsuit challenging the pandemic-related stay at home restrictions in Illinois.
On Friday, DOJ lawyers filed a statement of interest backing a lawsuit filed by Illinois state Rep. Darren Bailey, a Republican who charges Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker's emergency orders to help the state cope with the pandemic have exceed his authority.
“However well-intentioned they may be, the executive orders appear to reach far beyond the scope of the 30-day emergency authority granted to the governor under Illinois law,” Steven D. Weinhoeft, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, said in a statement. “Even during times of crisis, executive actions undertaken in the name of public safety must be lawful."
The filing also urges that Bailey's suit, which was moved from state court to federal court earlier this week, be moved back to state court.
“The governor of Illinois owes it to the people of Illinois to allow his state’s courts to adjudicate the question of whether Illinois law authorizes orders he issued to respond to COVID-19,” said Eric Dreiband, Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division.
Pritzker has called Bailey's suit "insulting" and "dangerous."
In a press release, the DOJ said it was taking the action as part of Attorney General William Barr’s April 27, 2020 initiative directing Dreiband to review state and local policies to ensure that civil liberties are being protected during the pandemic. There have been over 105,000 recorded cases of coronavirus in the state and over 4,700 deaths, according to the NBC News coronavirus tracker.
A spokeswoman for Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, whose office is representing Pritzker, told NBC Chicago their office "will continue to defend the governor’s constitutional and statutory right to act to protect the health and safety of all Illinois residents."
Drieband on Friday also sent a letter to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, a Democrat, and Los Angeles County Health Director Barbara Ferrer warning that long-term lockdowns due to the coronavirus "may be both arbitrary and unlawful."
The letter referenced several statements and media appearances by both that talk about stay at home requirements that may remain in effect until vaccines are developed to fight the disease, and called it a "heavy handed approach." It said the agency recognizes the duty the city and county have to protect the health and safety of residents but that authority "is not limitless, and must be exercised reasonably."
Chicago Mayor Beetlejuice gonna burn dem churches down.🙄 BREAKING - RED ALERT: One day after President Trump declared Churches "essential," Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is now threatening to "DESTROY WITHOUT PROCESS, OR JUDICIAL ACTION" Churches that hold services tomorrow!
In a letter delivered to Pastors today from her Department of Public Health, Mayor Heavy Hand warns the Churches:
"This Notice to Abate is being served upon you as the leader of your congregation. Given the heightened risk of spread of COVID19 in gatherings of 10 of more, you are hereby ordered to abate immediately. You are prohibited from having any in-person gatherings contrary to the Executive Order. You are required to cancel all gatherings contrary to the law. If you continue to host gatherings in violation of the Executive Order, the City of Chicago will take ALL NECESSARY MEASURES to abate the nuisance." (all capital emphases supplied by me)
The letter ends with this chilling THREAT in the very last sentence:
"Any future gatherings conducted contrary to the Order will be considered a failure to abate and the City will take steps necessary to abate, INCLUDING SUMMARY ABATEMENT."
In a case called City of Kankakee v. New York Cent. R. Co., 387 Ill. 109 (1944), the Illinois Supreme Court has defined "Summary Abatement" under common law as follows:
“Summary abatement would mean TO PUT DOWN OR DESTROY WITHOUT PROCESS. This means the inspector can, upon his own judgment, cause the alleged nuisance to stop on his own authority and effect A DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY AT HIS DISCRETION.”
Therefore, when Mayor Heavy Hand threatens that she will take "all necessary measures," including "summary abatement," she is threatening to take whatever action she wants, ***up to and including the destruction of the Churches, without any due process or judicial proceeding. It is hard for me to believe I am writing these words in the Land of the Free. We have alerted the Department of Justice. And, we now have a clear reason to petition the Supreme Court of the United States immediately to intervene.
The Churches will NOT be intimidated. Services WILL proceed as scheduled tomorrow. They appreciate your prayers, and we do too.
Go ahead Madam Beetlejuice just tear down all the churches that do not comply with your demands. Please do that. I wont hide and claim that i dont hate that crazy bitch because of course i do. Whenever she dies it will be a case of addition by subtraction and a day for celebration. Dont talk about it Beetlejuice, carry on with your threats.