By Peter Friedman, Jeffrey Monteleone, and Benjamin Schuster
On March 13, 2020, Governor Pritzker issued Executive Order 2020-07 pursuant to the Illinois Emergency Management Act (“IEMA”). The Executive Order suspends (for the duration of the Gubernatorial Disaster Declaration) the one procedural requirement in the Illinois Open Meetings Act (“OMA”) that a quorum of a public body be physically present to conduct a public meeting. No other OMA provision has been suspended. In the face of the public health hazards posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the logic and legal justification of the Governor’s Order is clear.