New Law in Illinois Limits Venues to File Lawsuits Challenging Executive Orders

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks in Chicago, Ill., on Aug. 4, 2021. Scott Olson/Getty Images

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed House Bill 3062 into law on June 6. Effective immediately, the law requires any legal challenges against state laws or executive orders to be filed in either Cook or Sangamon counties.

It made it through the General Assembly last month with only Democratic support. Sangamon County is home to the state capital, Springfield, while Cook County houses Chicago.

The bill’s proponents said it was necessary to prevent people with litigation against the state from selecting the county in which to file a lawsuit based on where they think they can get a favorable ruling. They also argued the law would conserve resources for the attorney general’s office, which represents the state in court.

“There has been considerable judge shopping as a tactic that has been used by litigants to secure sweeping court orders blocking state policies by steering cases to judges perceived to be sympathetic to these causes,” the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jay Hoffman (D), said during the House debate on the bill.

In the last few years, lawsuits have been filed in several of Illinois’ 102 counties, challenging Pritzker’s executive orders related to the pandemic as well as state laws eliminating cash bail and banning assault-style weapons.

Senate President Don Harmon (D), who sponsored the bill in the Senate, said those cases typically end up being consolidated, and most of them eventually end up before the Illinois Supreme Court, which sits in Springfield and Chicago.

Senate Republican Leader John Curran of Downers Grove said in a statement via the Chicago Tribune on June 6 that it “is clearly an attempt by the governor and the attorney general to send constitutional challenges to courts that they believe will be more favorable to the Administration.”

“In doing so, they are discrediting judges in suburban and downstate Illinois, and creating geographic barriers to citizens accessing our court system,” Curran said.

Republican Rep. Patrick Windhorst of Metropolis argued that it is inconvenient for constituents in his district to seek justice far from their homes.

“You know, where I live, I’m closer to the state capitol of Tennessee than I am Illinois, and I’m almost as close to Atlanta, Georgia, as I am Chicago, Illinois,” he said. “So to say if this body passes an unconstitutional law, in order for me or another person in my community to contest that law, I’ve got to travel a great distance and bear that expense that comes with that, is not fair to the individuals in these communities.”

Attorney Thomas DeVore, who sued Pritzker over COVID-19 mandates, said that people deserve to file claims against the government where they live.

“Why on earth would I have clients in Effingham County go file a case in Cook County about anything?” DeVore told WMAY. “Whether it’s a constitutional challenge, or to the governor’s authority or the legislature’s, why would I file their case up there? You would file that case where they live, where they elect judges, where those judges are responsible for the people that are bringing the challenges and the cases to court because that is what the Illinois and U.S. constitutions provide.