Chief U.S. District Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer of the Northern District of Illinois on Wednesday recounted a conversation she had with the clerk of the court at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.In a February 2020 meeting, Thomas G. Bruton told her, “We’re going to have to be worried about this virus; I think we’re going to have to be using our emergency plan,” Pallmeyer said in her annual State of the Court address.She said she did not share Bruton’s concern at the time.“I thought, …