Apparently, even the Trump-nominated U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh can’t be counted on to deliver an endless stream of wins for the Republican Party. Amidst a new national rise in confirmed Coronavirus cases, Illinois Republicans have been seeking an exemption from the restrictions on community gatherings that were implemented by Governor J.B. Pritzker (D). This Saturday, Justice Kavanaugh denied a request from those Republicans for the Supreme Court to approve the exemption that they’ve been after.
Less than 4 1/2 hours elapsed btw application and denial. Justice Kavanaugh neither referred the matter to the entire court nor requested a response from the Illinois governor.
— Steven Mazie (@stevenmazie) July 4, 2020
‘Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh denied a request from Illinois Republicans to block Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s rule that bars political rallies of more than 50 people amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Republicans had filed an emergency petition asking the court to rule before 6 p.m., ET on Saturday.‘
Currently, the state of Illinois has a ban in place against most gatherings of more than 50 people. (Churches are among the few exemptions.) Illinois Republicans have been fighting against the restrictions on gatherings since the ban extended to all gatherings of 10 or more people back towards the height of the Coronavirus outbreak in Illinois in particular.
Illinois state GOP Chairman Tim Schneider has previously complained:
’Gov. Pritzker is ruling Illinois like an unaccountable king, where he only gets to decide which violations of his executive order have his blessing.’
Similarly, Daniel Suhr, who is an attorney with the Liberty Justice Center, which has represented the Republicans, has complained:
‘Every American has a right to free speech, and the Constitution doesn’t allow this governor to create special exceptions for churches or protesters because they have a high media profile, because they’ve got good lobbyists or because he agrees with their political viewpoint.’
The stay-at-home orders that were issued around the country amidst the initial height of the Coronavirus pandemic were not and have never been some kind or conspiracy to silence Republicans. In a crisis where a virus is spreading rapidly among large groups of people and killing some of them, why would the Republicans be so set on holding their in-person events? Do they not care about the disease?
