Politics & Government
FoxFire Continues Fight Against Lifted Indoor Dining Ban
Lawyers for the Geneva restaurant say they want the Illinois Supreme Court to hear their case and prevent future shutdowns.
GENEVA, IL — FoxFire restaurant in Geneva is pressing on with its lawsuit against Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s indoor dining ban, which was lifted last month as a second wave of coronavirus cases and related deaths started to subside.
FoxFire’s lawyers won a motion Wednesday that compels Illinois officials to answer their questions and complete “outstanding discovery” requests within two weeks, attorney Kevin Nelson told Patch.
The state could be forced to pay FoxFire’s legal fees if it does not comply with the motion, said Nelson, of the Geneva-based Myers, Earl and Nelson law firm.
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A Kane County judge granted a restraining order to FoxFire in October that blocked officials from enforcing the indoor dining ban at the restaurant.
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In his ruling, Judge Kevin Busch said Pritzker has no authority to issue consecutive disaster proclamations under the Illinois Emergency Management Act, which underpins the state’s coronavirus mitigation efforts.
The Illinois 2nd District Appellate Court lifted that restraining order two weeks later, saying Busch “improperly considered” the Illinois EMA Act “in a vacuum.”
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The law "plainly authorizes the governor to issue successive disaster proclamations stemming from one, ongoing disaster," Justice Joseph Birkett wrote in the appellate court's order.
FoxFire’s attorneys appealed that ruling in December, hoping the state’s highest court will hear their case and issue a final ruling on the legality of a governor “exercising his emergency powers for consecutive 30-day periods for nearly a year,” Nelson said.
“Either his actions were legally right or legally wrong,” Nelson said.
He is hopeful the Illinois Supreme Court will hear the case, as it did not deny FoxFire’s appeal “like (it) did countless others at the end of January.”
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FoxFire’s attorneys are arguing Pritzker’s indoor dining ban flouted the state’s process for closing restaurants to the public, as laid out in the Illinois Department of Public Health Act.
Under that law, restaurants have the right to a hearing within 48 hours, a protection that doesn't exist under Pritzker’s emergency orders, Nelson said.
“Allowing the governor’s actions to stand unchecked essentially means he can shut down restaurants upon any ‘emergency,’ renew those shutdowns indefinitely, and there is almost no legal recourse for those businesses,” Nelson said. “Obviously, we have a problem with that.”
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Though the indoor dining ban has been lifted, FoxFire’s case has “immense precedential value,” Nelson said.
“While the restaurants can now have limited indoor dining, nothing is to say the governor won’t try it again with a resurgence,” Nelson said. “If the orders were improper — as we believe — we want to make sure they never happen again.”
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