West Central Reporter

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has been hit with a federal lawsuit over his executive action limiting the number of individuals that can gather for organized events across the state.  

Illinois Right to Life, the state’s largest nonprofit, pro-life organization, recently filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois targeting the governor over what the group deems as his overreach of executive powers.

Pritzker’s restrictions go all the way back to the month of March when he first enacted his stay-at-home order, which included a provision limiting public gatherings to 10 people as a way of mitigating the spread of COVID-19. Even as the state recently moved to Phase 4 of his five-phased Restore Illinois plan, limits on the number of people allowed to gather remain in effect at 50, with the governor vowing not to fully lift restrictions until “a vaccine or an effective treatment” is found.

“The governor has said it’s OK for some organizations to gather, to fundraise and to rally support around their cause but everyone else faces the threat of police enforcement or being shut down,” Illinois Right to Life Executive Director Mary Kate Knorr said in a release from Liberty Justice Center. “Our request is simple: Equal treatment under the law. We want to be able to get our message out and do our work just like the other advocacy organizations and social causes that the governor has permitted to do so.”

Illinois Right to Life is represented in the proceedings by the Liberty Justice Center, the Chicago-based public interest law firm that won the landmark First Amendment case Janus v. AFSCME in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018.

The suit marks at least the third that Liberty Justice has filed against the Pritzker administration since the virus emerged, accusing him of violating the constitution in his handling of the crisis.