Clay Co. IL. (ECWd) –
Governor Pritzker lost his delay tactic yesterday in the Darren Bailey case when he tried to have the Darren Bailey lawsuit against him removed from the state court and placed in the federal court. The federal court took 2 weeks to rule on what most agreed was a clear cut case and finally remanded the case back to state court which we covered in this article.
What Governor Pritzker and his attorneys failed to do was comply with the Circuit Court Judge’s deadline for a responsive pleading to Bailey’s Motion for Summary Judgment. That deadline was May 21, 2020. Since no responsive pleading was filed, Bailey, through his attorney Tom DeVore, has filed a Motion to Bar Responsive Pleading.
The question now is will the Judge grant that motion and the summary judgement motion or will he give the Governor more time to respond? Considering the past rulings from the Judge, we suspect he will grant the Motion to Bar and Motion for Summary Judgement against the Governor. If that happens, we are confident the Governor will request a stay of the ruling during his appeal to the Appellate Court.
If the Governor and his legal representative were smart they would file a response before the scheduled Hearing rather than ask for time to file. In an effort to keep any appeared bias from the process we suspect the Judge would allow such a filing even though it was past the deadline. Doing so would require the Motion to Bar be denied or withdrawn by Bailey’s Attorney.
The Motions are to be heard at 1 PM on July 2, 2020, in Clay County.
A copy of the Motion to Bar and Hearing schedule can be downloaded here and here, or both viewed below.
Motion to Bar Responsive PleadingNotice of Hearing
