Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker's stay-at-home orders has drawn legal challenges.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker's stay-at-home orders has drawn legal challenges.
State Rep Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) said late Tuesday that he’s unsure if his amended lawsuit targeting Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order will include all Illinois residents in its reach, as some news outlets have reported.
“I don’t want to speculate on what’s going to be in it, because it’s changing day-to-day,” Bailey told Prairie State Wire. “I can say that we have even more information on the procedural and substantive shortcomings in the governor’s office regarding his order.”
Last week County Circuit Court Judge Michael McHaney granted Bailey a temporary restraining order exempting him from the governor’s stay-at-home decree, which has been extended until the end of May. The judge’s ruling applies to Bailey only.
Four days later, Bailey announced he will ask McHaney to vacate the temporary restraining order so he can file the amended lawsuit, which Bailey told Prairie State Wire will be filed by next week.
Besides the alleged overreach of the governor’s order, Bailey also questions what models the governor is relying upon to justify his order. He also has taken issue with the Pritzker's reluctance to incorporate the results of antibodies testing in the fight against the disease. The tests can reveal who has built up immunities to the virus.
“Can’t imagine what he’s thinking about,” Bailey said. “Hospitals and health departments want the results of those tests.”
At an April 24 news conference, Pritzker said that the tests don’t “offer a true metric of immunity in Illinois.”
“This is not an Illinois specific problem,” he said. “As of today there still are no antibodies blood tests certifiably proven to accurately and consistently diagnose COVID-19 antibodies
A few days later, Mark Glennon of Wirepoints wrote that “there’s a critical distinction between an individual relying on the tests and the broader empirical value of what the tests indicate about general immunity levels. Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration has said just that. …adjustments to reflect the error rates can be made for broader research purposes and that’s the key.”
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