Illinois Supreme Court Declares State's Ban on Carrying Firearms Unconstitutional

In an unusually forceful and straightforward opinion(PDF) in the case of People v. Aguilar, the Supreme Court of Illinois unanimously held that the state's "comprehensive ban" on the "use of an operable firearm for self-defense outside the home" is invalid on its face under the Second Amendment. The NRA had participated in the case with an amicus brief.

The court surveyed the Supreme Court's recent Second Amendment decisions, as well as state and federal precedents from courts in Illinois. Regarding the significance of the Supreme Court's opinions, it declared: "neither Heller nor McDonald expressly limits the second amendment's protections to the home. On the contrary, both decisions contain language strongly suggesting if not outright confirming that the second amendment right to keep and bear arms extends beyond the home." It also characterized the Illinois law as "a wholesale statutory ban on the exercise of a personal right that is specifically named in and guaranteed by the United States Constitution…." According to the court, "In no other context would we permit this, and we will not permit it here either."

While the court noted that "we are in no way saying that such a right is unlimited or is not subject to meaningful regulation," it did not condition its holding on any further action by the legislature. It noted Illinois' recently-enacted Firearm Concealed Carry Act only in passing, stating that it was not "at issue in this case."

Invoking precedents from two federal appellate courts, the Illinois Supreme Court also held that the state's general ban on the possession of concealable firearms by minors does not run afoul of the Second Amendment. Notably, one of the cases upon which the court relied for this portion of the opinion was National Rifle Ass'n of America, Inc. v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms [&] Explosives, which upheld a federal prohibition on the sale of handguns by federally licensed dealers to adults aged 18 to 20. The NRA has recently filed a brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review that decision. Twenty-two state attorneys general also filed a brief in support of NRA's efforts in that case.

While residents of Illinois eagerly await implementation of the state's new concealed carry licensing process, they can rest assured that under controlling precedent in both state and federal courts, their right to bear arms in self-defense is not a "privilege" bestowed upon them by the legislature but a fundamental right the state and its localities are bound to respect.

Pat Quinn is, I would guess, being given oxygen right now. He’s just dropped further into irrelevancy. His gun grabbing efforts have now been nixed by the Illinois supreme court, the US count of appeals, and his own freaking political party. He was so desperate to find some personal right to ban that he made using a handheld cell phone in a car illegal anywhere in the state.

Meanehile, Rahmbo is trying to reverse the concealed carry law by revoking business licensure for establishments that don’t ban guns with the insipid little sign.

Expect the NRA to file suit on this within days.

>> It still amazes me the Supreme Court of Illinois issued a ruling in such close conformity to the Constitution. <<

>> I'm stunned.I always thought that Illinois was your typical one Party state.The Massachusetts Supreme Court wouldn't issue a ruling like this in a million years. <<

The Illinois SC has been indisputably the most conservative branch of state government for at least 10 years (of course, given that the Governor is Pat Quinn and the Illinois General Assembly is completely controlled by Mike Madigan, any body to the right of Karl Marx would be "more conservative")

What's really fascinating here is the Dems have a 4-3 majority on the Illinois SC, and the system is rigged to make it almost impossible for Republicans to win a majority on the court, since Cook County "at large" gets three seats, and that means the Chicago Democrat machine gets whoever they want for those three seats. Despite that, this ruling was 7-0 for our side, so somehow they convinced the three Chicago RATs (and 1 downstate RAT) to vote with our guys on conceal carry. This ruling comes recently after the Illinois SC had a similar 7-0 decision to uphold parental notification of abortion for minors. This had been passed by then GOP-controlled Illinois General Assembly in 1995, but the abortion loving liberals held it up in courts for years, until the Illinois SC slapped them down in 2013. (they could still try appealing nationally to SCOTUS, but good luck getting them to block parental notification or even hear the case to begin with). The RATs can't even complain the decision was written by a "right-wing anti-choice zealot", since the decision was written by Justice Anne Burke, a lifelong Democrat and wife of the powerful Chicago machine alderman Ed Burke.

Also interesting, in Illinois, we elected all our judges in partisan elections. Those seven justices on the Illinois SC had to win both primary and general elections. The union thugs spent millions of dollars to get "their guys" on the court, and yet the Justices haven't voted the way they wanted on numerous issues. They could primary an incumbent, but the justices are on 10 year terms. The last time we had a really rabid leftist on the Illinois SC was Justice Gordon Maag of southern Illinois, and he had the misfortune of representing a region of the state that become increasingly conservative over the years, so he lost re-election in 2004 to Republican Lloyd Karmeier, and the Illinois SC went from 5-2 Dem to 4-3 Dem. We could get a GOP majority except Justice Thomas L. Kilbride is an entrenched downstate incumbent, and he's a "well respected" moderate so it would be difficult to unseat him. As it stands, we do have 3 out of the 4 downstate seats, and the court recently selected one of the Republican justices to serve as Chief Justice (Rita Garman of Springfield)

I think this is why you won't see Obama pick any of his home state justices for SCOTUS, however. Chicago is a one-party system like the old deep south, where you HAVE to be a Dem to get elected to any type of office. The result is you have a number of rightward-leaning RAT judges in Cook County.

We should have the majority, Kilbride never should have won. If not for him maybe we could have gotten the awful congressional and state leg maps thrown out.

“. The result is you have a number of rightward-leaning RAT judges in Cook County.”

A friend of mom’s from church, Judge Susan McDunn, issued some adoption rulings that the queers didn’t like back in the late 90’s and got a target on her back. She was driven to resign last year.

So, how will Quinn and Rahm get around this ruling?

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