This lawyer is fighting Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s coronavirus orders. Here’s why.
Tom DeVore remembers growing up in what he described as a “poor” family.
His parents divorced when he was young. DeVore said his mother was on welfare and his father on disability.
“My parents were both poor,” DeVore said. “They didn’t have any money.”
Now the Bond County attorney says it’s those memories that spur him today in legal battles against the stay-at-home executive orders issued by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The disease caused by the virus is known as COVID-19 and is linked to over 3,700 deaths in Illinois and over 120 in the metro-east.
DeVore’s law firm is representing two state representatives and over 100 clients in over 30 counties, including business owners he said are struggling to stay afloat while their operations are either reduced or shut down during the pandemic.
“Irresponsible” is how Pritzker, a Democrat, has described the lawsuits filed by the two Republican lawmakers — Rep. Darren Bailey, of Xenia, which is about 80 miles east of Belleville off U.S. 50 in Clay County, and Rep. John Cabello, of Machesney Park near Rockford.
DeVore also has filed lawsuits for a hair salon owner in Clay County and a man who owns a bar called The Dookie Set in Clinton County and Poopy’s Pub & Grub in Carroll County, which is along the border with Iowa.
All of the lawsuits are pending with the lawmaker lawsuits in circuit court and the business ones being transferred to federal court at the state’s request.
DeVore also is representing the owners of Fit 4 All gym in Lebanon and The Zone fitness center in Greenville, which both have reopened in defiance of Pritzker’s order first issued in March and then extended through May.
In explaining why he has taken on cases against Pritzker’s actions, DeVore said he wants to protect the economic system in which he has thrived and he wants to maintain that for others.
“I grew up in a family of people that had nothing,” DeVore said.
“And I was able to get where I’m at, because of the opportunities that this country’s offered.”
DeVore said he’s not going “to judge” the governor’s intentions in issuing the stay-at-home orders.
“All I’m saying is that, that executive power cannot be wielded against the people because if that’s going to be how we’re going to govern, the opportunities that I got are not going to be there for people.”
He’s also concerned about an “overreach of the executive branch.”
“If any government official, no matter what level of government, enters an order, passes a law, tells you to do anything, you have to understand the nature or the genesis of that power,” he said. “Just because they hold a position doesn’t mean they get the power. That power has been given to them by the people and that’s not just words that our forefathers wrote 225 years ago. That’s the truth.
“I’ve had so many people say, ‘Well, the governor said we have to. And I’m like, ‘I’m not disrespecting the governor, but where did he get that power?’”
Executive orders questioned
DeVore, 50, acknowledges he’s not a “constitutional law” expert but he’s spent most of time in the past six weeks developing legal arguments for his clients.
“I love it but I do not practice it,” he said of constitutional law.
“All lawyers, we have an understanding of constitutional procedures and due process.”
As he interprets state laws and court rulings regarding public health in Illinois, he believes the state and local health boards, and not the governor’s executive orders, have the “supreme authority” to decide whether to close down a business or restrict where residents can go.
“It says the board makes those decisions and we will not vest that power or allow that power to be vested in one person because it’s too much of an extraordinary power for one person to wield,” he said.
“That’s the law of our state.”
Madison County Board of Health
DeVore spoke to Madison County Board members last week when they were considering a plan to allow nonessential businesses to reopen.
On Tuesday, the board members, who were officially convened as the county’s Board of Health, voted 26-2 to pass a resolution in support of businesses reopening. However, Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Gibbons said a resolution is non-enforceable and does not override the executive authority of the governor.
DeVore said he was glad to hear the results of the Madison County vote and that the resolution included the county’s request that the state “not punish (be it by threatened court action,removal of licenses, etc.) those businesses, places of worship, and other entities responsibly reopening in Madison County pursuant to the local oversight outlined in these guidelines.”
But on Wednesday, Pritzker said in his daily news conference that businesses that open too early could lose their licenses.
“The businesses that ignore the executive order and the law will be held accountable by our department of professional regulation,” he said.
DeVore told the Madison County board members that he thinks “public health” deals with more than just infectious diseases and that it also includes the overall well being of residents who are impacted by “government and regulations.”
He said he was before the board to advocate for his clients and he outlined his arguments that local officials should decide how to handle the pandemic in each county.
“This board of health, every board of health in every county wields that authority to close businesses and to restrict your people’s movements,” DeVore said. “No one person can wield this power; only a board can wield this power.
“I’ve had state’s attorneys tell me, sir, ‘I can’t prove that business is a public health risk under the Department of Public Health Act. I’m not going to take action,” DeVore said.
“My clients are then opening their business.”
The Dookie Set gets shut down
In the lawsuit filed on behalf of the Clinton County bar known as The Dookie Set, DeVore alleges the Illinois State Police “stormed” the bar on May 8 without telling the local sheriff’s office but a state police spokeswoman said it was the sheriff’s department that called ISP District 11 about the bar being open.
“ISP responded to the business and took the approach that ISP has taken consistently throughout this crisis – talking with the owner about the importance of the executive orders in protecting the public health by preventing the spread of COVID-19,” ISP spokeswoman Beth Hundsdorfer said in a statement. “ISP provided the owner with documents, including a cease and desist order.”
The bar owner told state police “he needed to be open to feed his family,” according to the lawsuit.
The path from accounting to law
DeVore, who lives on a farm about 10 miles north of Greenville, describes himself as “laid back” and a “small town farm boy.”
He took a somewhat unconventional path to law school.
DeVore didn’t start college until he was about 21 and then earned a degree from Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri, in 1997. He had to work during college to make ends meet and one of his jobs was at the Casino Queen in East St. Louis, where he would do his homework during his breaks.
After graduating with his accounting degree, he worked as an accountant until he decided to go to law school when he was 39. He started at Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kansas, and completed his degree at St. Louis University in 2011.
DeVore said his law firm, the Silver Lake Group, has had to hire new attorneys to handle the crush of new work involving the stay-at-home orders.
Since taking on the fight against Pritzker’s executive orders, DeVore’s efforts have been featured in the Chicago Tribune, other newspapers across the state and the National Law Journal.
He gets dozens of comments on some of his Facebook posts.
DeVore laughed when he was asked if this was the first time he had been covered by statewide and national media outlets.
“Yes. Absolutely, 100 percent,” he said. “I don’t even know how to deal with it to be honest.”
This story was originally published May 15, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
