By CAPITOL NEWS ILLINOIS

SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration said Friday, Feb. 18, it will ask the Illinois Supreme Court for an “expedited review” of an appellate court’s decision not to rule on a lower court order that invalidated COVID-19 mitigation measures for roughly 170 school districts that were parties in a set of consolidated lawsuits.

Late Thursday night, the 4^th District Court of Appeals said it would not review the temporary restraining order issued Feb. 4 by a Sangamon County judge, calling the issue “moot” because the emergency rules issued earlier by the Illinois Department of Public Health have expired and a legislative panel in charge of reviewing such rules had declined to extend them.

But the court also said individual school districts remain free to adopt their own mitigation policies, independent of any executive orders or state emergency rules.

“The administration is working with the attorney general to request an expedited review of this decision from the Supreme Court,” Pritzker’s press secretary Jordan Abudayyeh said in a statement Friday morning. “In the meantime, the governor urges everyone to continue following the doctors’ advice to wear masks so students can remain safely learning in classrooms, and is encouraged that the court made it clear that school districts can continue to keep their own mitigations in place.”

Attorney General Kwame Raoul also issued a statement saying he too was disappointed by the decision.

“The appellate...

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