Illinois Supreme Court ‘side stepped’ constitutional question of required FOID to keep guns in home

[June 17, 2022]  By Greg Bishop | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – It’s again back to square one with a case on its second trip to the Illinois Supreme Court challenging the requirement for an Illinois resident to have a state-issued Firearm Owners ID to own a gun in their own home.

The case against Vivian Brown began in White County in 2017. After responding to a domestic disturbance call, police found Brown in possession of a rifle but she didn’t have a state-issued Firearm Owner’s Identification or FOID card.

Prosecutors charged Brown. The White County Circuit Court ruled the FOID card unconstitutional in a home setting. In 2020, the Illinois Supreme Court sent the case back to the circuit court only to have to hear the case again in March.

Representing the state, Garson Steven Fischer said Brown never applied for a FOID card.

“That’s why she got in trouble,” Fischer said. “The burden of criminal liability doesn’t arise simply because the FOID card act exists, they arise because she never applied for a FOID card and possessed the weapon without having taken these steps.”

Representing Brown, David Sigale argued the law is unconstitutional.

“You’re taking the Second Amendment right and the state is turning it into a privilege that a law-abiding citizen is only able to exercise at the whims and the largess of the state,” Sigale said. “That is not right.”

The majority opinion from the Illinois Supreme Court dismissed the case Thursday, sending it back to White County.
 

“The circuit court was directed to enter a modified order dismissing defendant’s information on the alternative nonconstitutional ground, thereby allowing the normal appellate process to proceed,” the majority opinion said. “The circuit court concluded, however, that it would not be in the ‘best interests of justice’ to enter such an order.”

Ordering the case back to the circuit court, the majority ordered a modified circuit court order that was originally entered in 2020.

“On remand, the circuit court shall not entertain any motion from any party, nor take any action other than entering the modified order,” the opinion said. “Because the circuit court’s orders must be vacated, we do not reach any other issue in this appeal.”

The majority consisted of Chief Justice Anne Burke, Justice Mary Jane Theis, Justice P. Scott Neville, Jr. and Justice Robert Carter.

Dissenting were Justice Michael Burke, Justice Rita Garman and Justice David Overstreet. On Thursday, they said the majority referring to the first hearing of the case as an “unexpected and pointless exercise” and a “meaningless and wasteful act” is exactly what Thursday’s majority decision is and “the trial court did absolutely nothing wrong.”

“In a move that appears to be unprecedented in Illinois jurisprudence, this court, while expressing no opinion on the merits of the case, forces the trial court to take a particular position on the merits and denies that court its inherent power to reconsider its own ruling,” the dissenting justices said.

The Illinois State Rifle Association said it’s “the judicial version of ring-around-the-rosy.”

“In short, we are back to square one,” ISRA Executive Director Richard Pearson said. “I will say while the FOID card issue is most important, the ruling is also terribly unfair to Ms. Brown. We will continue to fight

Greg Bishop reports on Illinois government and other issues for The Center Square. Bishop has years of award-winning broadcast experience and hosts the WMAY Morning Newsfeed out of Springfield.