SPRINGFIELD — State regulation of the number of people allowed at gatherings does not violate Illinoisans’ First Amendment rights, the attorney general’s office argued in a court document.
A lawsuit filed last month by the state’s Republican Party alleged Governor JB Pritzker’s executive order limiting gatherings to 10 residents or fewer was unconstitutional because it restricted the party’s freedom of speech.
Although the GOP’s lawsuit argued its political speech “is most effective and persuasive when delivered in person,” the attorney general’s office argued the U.S. Constitution does not “guarantee a right to the ‘most effective and persuasive’ mode of speech in the midst of a pandemic.”
An exemption of religious institutions included in Pritzker’s executive order follows the federal and state government’s history of providing those houses of worship “separate and unique safeguards against governmental action against free exercise,” the state wrote in its court filing.
The GOP “completely ignore the devastating toll of a pandemic that has ravaged Illinois and is more likely to reach attendees of their own events if” the state is barred from enforcing Pritzker’s executive order, the attorney general’s office wrote.
