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