A federal appeals court panel in Chicago ruled Thursday that Illinois’ sweeping ban on high-powered guns and high-capacity ammunition magazines can stay in place while the state contests a ruling from a downstate judge who found the law unconstitutional.
It’s the second time the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has determined that the state’s ban on so-called assault weapons can remain on the books as lawyers for Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and several gun rights groups battle over the legality of the weapons prohibition, which Gov. JB Pritzker signed into law nearly two years ago.
The 7th Circuit stepped in this time after U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn ruled Nov. 8 that the gun ban violated the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and that it could no longer be enforced after 30 days.
Last year, after McGlynn ruled the law unconstitutional when gun-rights groups sought an injunction to temporarily block enforcement of the ban, the 7th Circuit also delayed implementing the judge’s ruling before the panel several months later ultimately sided with the state.
“While we are glad that Federal District Court Judge Stephen McGlynn’s stay would have expired on Sunday, December 8th, we are disappointed — but not surprised — that the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has extended that stay,” one of the gun-rights groups involved in the litigation, the Illinois State Rifle Association, said in a statement. “Back in November, we were victorious when Judge McGlynn found the provisions of the Illinois ban on commonly owned firearms and accessories…to be unconstitutional. The State appealed immediately to the Seventh Circuit, so we also know that this battle is far from over.”
In his own statement, Raoul praised the 7th Circuit’s decision, saying the weapons ban “is an important tool to prevent weapons of war from being used in our schools and on our streets, and I am committed to defending its constitutionality.”
A key factor in the case has been a constitutional test set by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen ruling, which requires gun laws to be historically consistent with laws on the books when the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms was written in the 18th century.
In McGlynn’s decision last month, he cited several U.S. Supreme Court rulings to justify why the ban unconstitutionally deprives law-abiding citizens of their right to arm themselves with “weapons that are in common use” for protection.
“While the Court is sympathetic to those who have lost loved ones to gun violence, such tragedies are not an excuse to restrict the rights guaranteed to the Illinois public by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution,” McGlynn, who was appointed to the bench in 2020 by then-President Donald Trump, wrote in his 168-page decision. “Regardless of state governments’ desire to restrict law-abiding citizens’ Second Amendment rights under the guise of crime control, the Second Amendment conclusively protects law-abiding citizens’ right to defend themselves utilizing weapons that are in common use.”
The weapons ban was spurred by a deadly mass shooting at the Highland Park Fourth of July parade in 2022 that killed seven people and left dozens injured. Championed by Pritzker and his Democratic allies in the Illinois General Assembly, the ban has withstood a number of legal challenges since taking effect in January 2023.
About four months after the ban took effect, McGlynn granted a motion to temporarily block its enforcement. Days later, the 7th Circuit prevented the law from being unenforceable while both sides pleaded their cases, and later in the year a three-judge appeals panel voted 2-1 to overturn McGlynn’s ruling.
But the appeals court said in its opinion at the time that it dealt only with a preliminary injunction from a lower court and does not “rule definitively on the constitutionality” of the state and local laws at issue.
The case, which could eventually end up before the U.S. Supreme Court, is now at the stage for the 7th Circuit to consider the ban’s constitutionality and whether it should permanently remain state law.
The gun ban prohibits, among other things, the delivery, sale, import and purchase of more than 100 high-powered guns, including semiautomatic rifles, shotguns and handguns.
People who owned guns covered by the ban before the law’s effective date are also required to register them with the Illinois State Police, and violators could be charged with a misdemeanor for a first offense and felonies for subsequent offenses. Many law enforcement officials had already declared that they had no intention of proactively investigating violators of that portion of the law.