* Sangamon County Judge Raylene Grischow ruled in favor of the governor today and dismissed six lawsuits filed by various plaintiffs, including attorney Tom DeVore. The judge also ruled against Rep. Darren Bailey’s attempt to amend his lawsuit. Click here for the document.

The plaintiffs had asked the judge to rule that no public health emergency exists in their respective counties to warrant Gov. Pritzker’s use of executive orders. They also asked the judge to enjoin the government from exercising his emergency powers in their counties (Edgar, Sangamon, Bond, Richland, Clinton and Adams).

* The objection is based on the plaintiffs’ interpretation of this section of the Illinois Emergency Management Act…

“Public health emergency” means an occurrence or imminent threat of an illness or health condition that: […]

(b) poses a high probability of any of the following harms:

(i) a large number of deaths in the affected population;
(ii) a large number of serious or long-term disabilities in the affected population; or
(iii) widespread exposure to an infectious or toxic agent that poses a significant risk of substantial future harm to a large number of people in the affected population.

The facts the plaintiffs alleged (the total number of people who’d been tested for, contracted and died from COVID-19) did not “set forth a good and sufficient cause of action,” the state complained.

Judge Grischow agreed that the plaintiffs’ complaints were indeed “devoid of facts” to support their conclusions. “The Court,” she wrote, “cautions counsel to fully set forth facts to support the conclusions.” In other words, don’t disguise a political speech as a legal brief.

But Judge Grischow did write that a legitimate cause of action may actually exist, so she allowed the plaintiffs to file again based on the actual law “in an effort to have the issues properly framed” for the court.

* Separately, Rep. Bailey had filed a motion to amend his own lawsuit to make it match the one which hit a brick wall today. Grischow informed Bailey he could file a new amended motion as long as it complied with the directions she gave to the other plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs have 21 days to get their act together and then the governor will have 21 days to respond.