Chicago City Wire

Ammie Kessem, the 41st Ward Republican committeewoman, says it is time to put Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker before a judge.

The Illinois Republican Party, along with the Northwest Side GOP Club — Kessem is its vice president — the Schaumburg Township Republican Organization and Will County Republican Central Committee filed a lawsuit against Pritzker  in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. 

The Republicans said they want to hold in-person events as the 2020 election approaches. They said Pritzker has appeared at rallies and endorsed events that drew large crowds while he ordered other activities limited to 10 or fewer people.

That forced the Illinois Republican Party to hold its statewide convention virtually June 12-13 over videoconference. Party officials said losing that opportunity for face-to-face meetings and training is especially damaging during an election year.

Matthew Podgorksi, chairman of the Northwest Side GOP Club, said the group has been observing the ban on meetings of more than 10 people because they wanted to challenge it in court. The Liberty Justice Center of Chicago, a public interest law firm that won a landmark First Amendment case at the U.S. Supreme Court, will represent the plaintiffs.

Kessem said it’s time to call the governor on his unfair policies.

“He’s a hypocrite. Plain and simple,” she told Chicago City Wire. “He uses tragedy to his advantage whenever and wherever it suits him and his party. How the voters don’t see through this is beyond my comprehension.”

Kessem was a candidate for the 19th District seat in the Illinois House of Representatives in 2018. A Chicago native, she earned a bachelor's degree in American studies, sociology, and business administration from Dominican University in 1998.

She lives in Norwood Park with her three children and has been working 12-hour shifts as a Chicago Police Department sergeant. Kessem helped implement the city’s Gang Intervention Probation Program (GIPP), a program that’s been adopted by the Cook County State’s Attorney Office and Cook County Probation Department.

It’s that kind of positive legal action that Kessem has seen succeed as she supports the lawsuit to make Pritzker abide by the constitutions of the U.S. and Illinois.

Illinois Republican Party Chairman Tim Schneider said the party supports the right of people to hold peaceful protests. But he said Pritzker is acting like a king, determining who can exercise their First Amendment rights.

“The governor’s actions are both hypocritical and illegal. The First Amendment applies equally to everyone in Illinois — not only people whose political views are supported by Gov. Pritzker,” Patrick Hughes, president and co-founder of the Liberty Justice Center, said in a news release. “The governor claims to believe that the freedom of assembly is such a critical right that he not only allowed last week’s rallies, he even walked in one in violation of his own executive order. The governor must be stopped from depriving the Republican Party and its local groups of the same right.”