Illinois attorney general appeals court order blocking Pritzker's school mask and vaccine mandates
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration are asking a state appellate court to set aside a lower court order from late Friday that invalidated the mask and vaccine mandates that the state imposed last year for public schools.
On Friday, Sangamon County Circuit Judge Raylene Grischow granted a temporary restraining order blocking schools from enforcing those mandates, saying the mitigation rules amounted to a kind of “quarantine” and that the Pritzker administration overstepped its bounds by issuing those mandates through emergency rules.
“The judge's decision cultivates chaos for parents, families, teachers and school administrators across the state, and I've asked Attorney General Kwame Raoul to seek to have the ruling overturned with all possible speed,” Pritzker said during a news conference Monday.
Beginning in August 2021, Pritzker issued a series of executive orders related to the reopening of public schools. They included a requirement that schools enforce a mask mandate for all students, staff and visitors; that they require all school personnel either be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing, and that they exclude from school premises for specified periods of time any student or staff member who tests positive for COVID-19 or who has been in close contact with someone who has.
https://news.stlpublicradio.org/law-order/2022-02-07/illinois-attorney-general-appeals-court-order-blocking-pritzkers-school-mask-and-vaccine-mandates