South Central Reporter

State Sen. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) is applauding a recent state committee's decision rejecting Gov. J.B. Pritzker's attempt to reissue COVID-19 mask mandates in schools after a judge struck them down.

"Today,  the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules successfully objected to the Governor's attempt to reissue emergency rules that could have required most school districts to enforce the Governor’s school mask mandate despite a recent court ruling," Bryant said on Facebook.

Bryant said she believes Pritzker's mandates are worse than those in other blue states, SE Illinois News reported. “Even states like New York and New Jersey have been more reasonable than our Governor who has treated our state like his personal fiefdom since the onset of this pandemic instead of the democracy he was elected to represent," the senator said.

After a court ruled that Pritzker did not have authority to issue mask mandates in public schools, the governor attempted to reissue the mandate, Bryant said.

The Joint Committee of Administrative Rules (JCAR) voted 9-0-2 to block the governor's effort.

“Today the Governor learned that no matter how big his ego may be, he is not the dictator of Illinois and is not above the rule of law," she said in a statement. “For far too long, the Governor has exerted his will to control every  aspect of our pandemic response. When our co-equal judicial branch pushed back on his unilateral control, I had hoped that he would have  reevaluated his continuous go-it-alone approach and allow the process to  work. Instead, he decided to double down on masking students despite a court ruling that nullified his original rules."