Illinois Supreme Court ruling on state’s gun and magazine ban expected Friday

[August 11, 2023]  By Greg Bishop | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – The Illinois Supreme Court is expected to release its decision Friday on the challenge to Illinois’ gun and magazine ban.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker enacted the Protect Illinois Communities Act on Jan. 10, this year. The law bans sales of certain semi-automatic firearms and magazines over a certain capacity. An affidavit of such firearms owned before then must be registered with Illinois State Police by Jan. 1, 2024, or criminal penalties can apply.

Sheriffs across the state vowed to not enforce the law.

A challenge from state Rep. Dan Caulkins, R-Decatur, secured temporary restraining orders for Caulkins and other named plaintiffs in Macon County back in February. That followed separate state-level cases in different counties brought by attorney Thomas DeVore, where thousands of individual plaintiffs and gun stores secured temporary restraining orders against the state from enforcing the law against those named. A direct appeal was heard by the Illinois Supreme Court in May after an appeals court in one of the DeVore cases found the challenge was likely to advance on the merits.

The Illinois Supreme Court announced Thursday that it expects to release an opinion at 9 a.m. Friday. The thousands of TROs could be wiped away if the court upholds the law.

Pritzker said there’s no way to know which way the court will rule.

“I’m hopeful, but no idea how they’ll resolve it,” Pritzker said Thursday after learning the news about the expected ruling from The Center Square. “It does matter what happens at the state level in state court, but ultimately the [U.S.] Supreme Court likely will be ruling on this and so whatever happens there will ultimately, I hate to use the word, trump whatever happens in our state courts.”

Aside from Second Amendment challenges alleging the law violates the right to keep and bear arms, another issue stems from the carve out of employees in law enforcement and security sectors, who are exempt from the law. Plaintiffs say not requiring that class to comply with the ban violates equal protections.

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Caulkins’ attorney Jerry Stocks motioned for two justices whose campaign accounts took $1 million each from Pritzker, a defendant in the case, to recuse themselves.

“It’s a three-fold matter. It’s from whom it came, being the other branches of government and the independence and separation of powers concerns. Two, the amount. And then three, the reported pledge,” Stocks said in May after the hearing.

The motion noted that “each candidate voiced their support of [gun control] organizations’ top legislative priority: banning assault weapons and large-capacity magazines in Illinois.”

Before the case was heard, Justices Elizabeth Rochford and Mary O’Brien denied Stocks’ recusal motion. The justices’ campaign accounts also took six-figure donations from Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, another defendant in the lawsuit. One element of Stocks' recusal motion included questions about gun control advocacy groups supporting the justices' campaigns.

Stocks was open to taking the conflict question to the federal courts. Whether that happens depends on the outcome expected Friday.

Asked Thursday why he gave $1 million each to the two then-candidates, Pritzker downplayed concerns and stood by the decision of the justices and the court against recusal.

“Because there was nothing to it,” Pritzker said.

While the ruling from the Illinois Supreme Court will be out Friday, the ruling from a separate challenge to state and local gun and magazine bans out of the federal Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals that was heard in late June is still pending.