Oral arguments Apr. 12 for consolidated federal gun ban challenges

[February 25, 2023]  By Greg Bishop | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – The state has until Thursday to reply to plaintiffs in four federal lawsuits that are looking for injunctive relief against Illinois’ gun ban and registry. Oral arguments have been set for mid-April in the consolidated cases.

Three of the four state-level cases are consolidated with the standalone Macon County case still on track for a status hearing March 3.

On Jan. 10, Gov. J.B. Pritzker enacted a ban on more than 170 semi-automatic firearms and certain magazine capacities and required a registry of banned guns by Jan. 1, 2024. A stack of lawsuits were filed in both state and federal courts.

Friday, the Southern District of Illinois federal court consolidated the cases from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the Illinois State Rifle Association, the Federal Firearms Licensees of Illinois, and a case out of Crawford County that was transferred from state court to federal court. Barnett et. al v. Raoul will be the lead case.

Federal Judge Stephen McGlynn set the schedule for the state to answer the Second Amendment charges.

"The important thing is, I don't need to be papered to death on this," McGlynn said during a conference call with plaintiffs and defendants Friday.

Attorneys with Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office, representing Pritzker and Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly, are to respond to a motion from plaintiffs for injunctive relief by March 2, and March 16 to answer charges the law violates the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that guarantees the right to “keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

Todd Vandermyde is consulting for plaintiffs in the Illinois Gun Rights Alliance case against the ban. He said the judge seems on top of the issues.

“I don't think he’s going to be rushed, but I think he’s going to give everybody the opportunity to get everything into the record to build the case because he knows this is going up on appeal,” Vandermyde told the Center Square.

The Fifth and 14th Amendment allegations from the Crawford County case that the law violates rights against self incrimination and rights of equal protection will come out at a later date, McGlynn noted.

Vandermyde said that was about case management.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker at a early childhood education facility in Springfield Thursday
Greg Bishop / The Center Square

“And it’s another set of briefings that we don’t have to deal with and argue here,” Vandermyde said. “It’s already complicated enough.”

Oral arguments in the federal case will happen in East St. Louis at 1:30 p.m. April 12.

In the state-level challenges to the gun and magazine ban, all four cases that have been filed have temporary restraining orders issued against the state preventing enforcement of the law, but only for certain plaintiffs.

Thursday, the Illinois Supreme Court denied attorney Thomas DeVore’s motion to consolidate his three cases with a case from state Rep. Dan Caulkins, R-Decatur, out of Macon County.

DeVore contends his aim is to build a record to successfully challenge the law in front of the Illinois Supreme Court and the Caulkins case isn’t. While subpoenas are issued with motions to quash playing out, DeVore said he’s going to amend his case to narrow his arguments.

“Since we’re going to amend anyway to reduce it to those narrow arguments, we’re going to give people a chance to join in if they want to,” DeVore told The Center Square.

DeVore’s first case out of Effingham County secured a temporary restraining order for 866 plaintiffs. A state appellate court sided with the TRO on the grounds equal protection arguments have a likelihood of success. That ruling was followed by another TRO DeVore secured for 1,690 plaintiffs in White County and an additional batch of hundreds more plaintiffs in a second Effingham County case.

Attorney Jerry Stocks for Caulkins, which secured a TRO out of Macon County, said he has a fundamental disagreement with DeVore’s approach. Stocks said his objective is to secure the maximum amount of citizens protection while the constitutional question works out.

“A person shouldn’t be protected from an unconstitutional law only because they paid Mr. DeVore $200,” Stocks told The Center Square.

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.