Opponents of government mandates seek local control

QUINCY — People are sick and tired of being sick and tired.

But does the COVID-19 virus care about that?

As the State of Illinois re-tightens its COVID protocols, a packed house at Quincy’s Holiday Inn heard people wanting local control back in government and a lawyer who has traveled statewide attempting to block governments and schools from initiating those protocols.

A standing room only crowd of about 350 people filled the Holiday Inn ballroom to hear the speakers, including attorneys Tom DeVore and Todd Eyler.

State Senator Jil Tracy (R-Quincy) was scheduled to attend, but the General Assembly’s special legislative session on redistricting and other issues ran into Tuesday night, so she was stuck in Springfield.

Roni Quinn, one of the organizers of Tuesday night’s event, said she will present a Freedom of Choice resolution to the Quincy School Board which will include:

• Making masks and vaccines optional for staff, students and bus drivers.
• All COVID-19 testing optional.
• Quarantines longer than 48 hours optional
• Remote learning with laptops provided by the Quincy School District.

“We are not anti-mask or anti-vaccine. I’m pro-choice,” Quinn said. “It’s been nasty on both sides, and we have to change that.”

The featured speaker was DeVore, a Sorento, Ill., attorney with  Silver Lake Group, Ltd., in Greenville, Ill. He has represented hundreds of people who have sought to defy Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s numerous Executive Orders on COVID-19 protocols, including businesses and parents who have issues with their school districts enforcing the state’s mandates.

DeVore is representing three Quincy families seeking a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction against the Quincy School District and superintendent Roy Webb regarding quarantine policies. The case has been assigned to Judge Debra Wellborn, who will hear it at 1 p.m. Thursday.

DeVore was late to Quincy because he was in Macoupin County for court regarding the North Mac School District, which went remote when students began walking out when asked to quarantine. That school district has also canceled all sports and extracurricular activities.

DeVore received a standing ovation when he entered the room, where the majority of the crowd was maskless. DeVore said he is not anti-mask and that overshadows the real issue.

“When we are more concerned of the end result, than the means, we are losing what this country is about,” he said. “I have just as much of a problem with (Florida Gov. Ron) DeSantis as I do with Pritzker. We cannot let the ends justify the means.”

DeSantis declared he was going to make mask mandates illegal in Florida schools.

“Am I concerned about the rule of law, or I just don’t like the result?” Devore asked. “The rule of law does not discriminate. The executive branch is creating policies without the legislative branch, and the people’s rights will not be violated.”

Eyler, the first assistant state’s attorney for Adams County, said he was speaking as a citizen and an attorney and not as an employee of Adams County. He said he applauded those in attendance for taking action, but he said, “We are in the position we are in because people for years did not step up.”

Eyler said he agrees with most of what DeVore has done in taking on government. He said most attorneys have not been willing to stick their necks out.

“Why more attorneys aren’t standing up? I don’t know,” Eyler said. “Me being at the state’s attorney’s office … I can’t take cases on, but I’ve been vocal and tried to give some advice when I can.”

Eyler said Illinois school districts are the only units of local government listening to the governor. He asked if the threats to curtail state funding were actually going to take place as he had not heard of any state entities who had lost their funding over COVID.

DeVore reinforced Eyler’s comment.

“No bars or restaurants were closed. They didn’t try,” DeVore said. “None closed by executive order. Some closed by local food ordinances, but never by the order.

“Put the governor in front of a court. They know the question has never been answered. Are his powers so broad he can dismantle the control of your local school district? Does this power exist? That’s the question everyone should ask. That’s more important than should your kid wear a mask. If you fight, I don’t think you’ll lose.

“Children have a 1 in 800,000 chance to die (from COVID-19). They are putting (mask mandates) in place because they feel good about themselves that they think they are doing something. What does that mean? How is it enforceable? Fear is a more powerful order of compliance than the law.”

DeVore has not won many of the cases he has represented when fighting the executive order, but he has previously said many of them are waiting on appeal. He did win a temporary restraining order in Carlyle, Ill., where the judge said the school district couldn’t quarantine as that authority fell to the Clinton County Health Department or, on a larger scale, the Illinois Department of Public Health.

“When you fight back, the bully realizes he can’t pick on you anymore,” DeVore said.

Pritzker said last month he issued the executive order for the safety of the schools because the number of COVID-19 cases, including the new Delta Variant, were rising.

“School districts have been enforcing dress codes for many, many years,” Pritzker told Chicago’s WTTW-TV when asked how schools should go about getting people to follow his edict. “And so they’re expected to do the same thing they’ve been doing literally for decades, and I expect that people will do the right thing nonetheless and not put their school district in the difficult situation of having to tell somebody ‘follow the rules.’”

Pritzker was at the Farm Progress Show in Peoria on Tuesday. Numerous media outlets showed photos and videos of Pritzker maskless and shaking hands with many in the crowd.