McHenry Times

Lake in the Hills attorney Troy Owens, whose restraining order against Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s mitigation order was denied on Friday, said what the governor is doing is absurd.

“They are finding that the actual rate of infection from restaurants is like 1.4% of reported cases,” Owens said in an interview with McHenry Times. “In the overwhelming majority of cases...according to the Illinois Department of Public Health's reporting, (the infection rate) in DuPage County is like...over 70% in nursing homes and assisted nursing facilities, that sort of thing.”

Owens said it is a gross abuse of power and nothing less than absurd.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker

“So, I mean, in terms of taking Gov. Pritzker's regulations and essentially looking at these Tier One restrictions as they're actually affecting restaurants, it's absurd,” Owens said.

The plaintiffs in the case were Niko's Red Mill Tavern, Niko's Pointers Saloon, Niko's R&R Supper Club, Elsie's Cabins and Bistro Savvy

Owens said he wasn’t sure what his clients wanted to do next. He said that from a constitutional perspective, there are possible challenges to some of the statutes involved.

“The basis of the challenges where the application of state statutory law, which would be specifically as it was ruled in this case, the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act, there are potential constitutional challenges, but these types of statutes, as you know, FEMA, IEMA, these sorts of things, typically give the executive in question great deference,” Owens said. 

The lawsuit alleged that Pritzker’s emergency order, which expired in April, couldn’t continue to impose restrictions on dining establishments after expiration. 

The lawsuit was filed on Thursday, but McHenry County Judge Michael Chmiel denied the restraining order on Friday. Chmiel said Pritzker had the authority to issue subsequent disaster proclamations after the one that expired in April.

Pritzker announced last week that indoor dining services would be shuttered as of Oct. 31 in Lake and McHenry counties, the Lake & McHenry County Scanner reported. 

Pritzker instituted the ban because of the county’s seven-day positivity rate being above 8% for three days in a row.