Republican Judge Suggests He Should Rule On All Vax-Mandate Cases

CHICAGO ? A Republican federal judge apparently took it upon himself to suggest a trio of lawsuits challenging vaccine mandates should be reassigned to his courtroom.

While presiding over a case challenging Naperville's vaccine requirements for city employees on Friday, U.S. District Court Judge John Robert Blakey talked with the plaintiff's attorney about whether two others he filed ? on behalf of workers in Cook County and Chicago ? should also be reassigned to his courtroom.

Without a motion before him, Blakey ordered up a hearing "based on the attorneys' representations ... that this case is related" to two other vaccine mandate cases, and that "counsel in this case have no objection to reassignment," according to court records.

Judges don't make motions. They rule on them. But, as the Daily Herald reported, reassigning the cases was Blakey's idea. That's a concern for lawyers defending local jab mandates.

Attorneys representing Chicago and Cook County officials on Monday filed objections to having cases challenging jab mandates issued by separate local governments reassigned to Blakey ? particularly since court rules do not allow "a judge presiding over one case to reassign another case to himself," according to court filings.

Chicago's attorneys also argued that reassigning cases would not be a judicial time saver, since Judge John Lee has already heard evidence and issued a temporary restraining order on issues that don't apply to other cases.

After those objections were filed late Monday, a concerned source with Democratic Party allegiances called to ask me, "What the hell do you think this Republican judge could be up to?"

Blakey, a South Bend, Indiana native, was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama in 2014 on the recommendation of Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk. He's the son of G. Robert Blakey, the noteworthy lawyer who helped draft racketeering statutes credited with helping take down the mob.

For what it's worth, Judge Blakey dismissed a lawsuit in August seeking to block construction of the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park. No Democrats objected to Blakey's political leanings after that ruling.

Still, the pandemic politics of vaccine mandates seem to have invaded every corner of life these days. And last month, Cook County Judge Moshe Jacobius denied a Fraternal Order of Police motion to reassign its vaccine mandate challenge, partly because ?judge shopping is frowned upon.?

So on Tuesday, I called Judge Blakey's chambers. A clerk assured me there was no partisan conspiracy at play, as federal judges routinely reassign cases on related topics as a matter of judicial proficiency.

She explained that on Monday, Jonathan Lubin, the attorney representing workers challenging vaccine rules in Naperville, as well as Chicago and Cook County, responded affirmatively when the judge asked if he planned to make a motion for reassigning the other cases.

Blakey, according to court filings, has taken that "oral motion" by Lubin under advisement.

Lubin didn't respond to calls and emails inquiring about how his oral motion for reassigning cases came to be in Blakey's courtroom.

A transcript of the interactions between the judge and Lubin haven't been included in the court record. So for now, evidence is lacking that might calm partisan suspicions over what may have instigated interest in courthouse efficiency handling lawsuits against local jab mandates.

Blakey's clerk said the judge is expected to make a ruling, soon.

Maybe he'll shed light on all this ? and put the whispered concerns of a vaccine mandate conspiracy to rest.

Then again, I've had the same Nirvana lyrics stuck in my head since the '90s.

"Just because you're paranoid. Don't mean they're not after you."

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docuseries on CNN and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary "16 Shots."

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