McHenry Times

An attorney who represents 37 restaurants in their fight against Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s latest lockdown orders said the governor is essentially bullying restaurants out of business.

John Dickson said Pritzker said last week during a daily COVID-19 press briefing that he would do whatever he could to punish those who defied him.

“And one thing I want to make sure that the media understands is that at last Wednesday’s daily COVID press conference, Gov. Pritzker, in response to there being open defiance in suburban Cook County and Winnebago County, which is where Rockford’s at, he stated that he's going to do what he can to make sure to punish businesses for staying open in defiance of the order, including going after their liquor licenses,” Dickson said in an interview with McHenry Times. 

Dickson said in Illinois, restaurants that want to serve alcohol need two separate licenses — one from the state and one from the locality.

“And in the state of Illinois, in order to serve liquor at a restaurant or at a bar, you've got to have two licenses,” Dickson said. “You’ve got to have a state license, and then once you have your state license, you go get your local license, whether it's issued by the county or the municipality. And having a state license is an absolute prerequisite to getting your local license.” 

Dickson said if Pritzker can revoke the state liquor licenses for the establishments that defy him, then their local license also gets revoked, which puts the businesses in peril.

“Operating in defiance of the governor's executive order, it's not just, you know, you might get a fine or a ticket from a local health department, it's you might lose your liquor license,” Dickson said. “And if you get a large company or business from serving alcohol, that might put you out of business as well.”

Dickson said they disagree with the judge’s ruling.

“We respect it for being well thought out and reasoned, especially considering the fact that the McHenry County courts got this lawsuit effectively 24 hours before he issued his opinion,” Dickson said. “And, you know, even though the judge didn’t rule in our favor, I respect what he did. But, we’re going to go in to see if we can convince him to change his mind.”

The lawsuit challenged Pritzker’s emergency order arguing that it expired in April. Dickson was also seeking a temporary restraining order. 

The lawsuit was filed on Thursday. The following day, McHenry County Judge Michael Chmiel denied the restraining order.

In has denial, Chmiel said Pritzker had the authority to issue subsequent disaster proclamations after the one that expired in April, the Lake & McHenry County Scanner reported.

Pritzker announced last week that indoor dining services would be shuttered as of Oct. 31 in Lake and McHenry counties. He said the bans were happening because the counties both had a seven-day positivity rate being above 8% for three days in a row.