Appeals court keeps Illinois’ gun ban in place

SPRINGFIELD – Illinois’ gun ban will remain in place, at least until a federal appeals court hears full arguments challenging a lower court ruling that found the law unconstitutional.

In a brief, two-page order issued Thursday, a three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago granted the state’s motion to delay the order, noting that just a year earlier the circuit refused to grant a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the same law.

The order noted that while refusing to issue a preliminary injunction is not the same as upholding the law entirely, “the laws have enough support to remain in place pending the final resolution of plaintiffs’ suit.”

Illinois lawmakers passed the weapons ban in January 2023 in response to numerous mass shootings around the country in which AR-style rifles with large-capacity magazines were used. Among those was a deadly shooting at an Independence Day parade the previous summer in Highland Park.

The law bans the sale, purchase and manufacture of a wide range of firearms that are defined as “assault weapons,” as well as large-capacity magazines and certain kinds of attachments, including those that increase the rate of fire from a standard semiautomatic weapon.

The new law was quickly challenged in multiple lawsuits in state and federal court. In August 2023, the Illinois Supreme Court upheld the law against claims that it violated provisions of the Illinois Constitution. But the broader claims that it violates the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution are still a matter of legal dispute.

The various federal cases were eventually consolidated into three lawsuits – two in the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago and one in the Southern District in East St. Louis.

In April 2023, Judge Stephen McGlynn, of the Southern District, granted a preliminary injunction to block enforcement of the law while a trial of the case proceeded in his court, saying plaintiffs in that case were likely to prevail in the end. But two other judges in the Northern District denied identical motions, reaching an opposite conclusion about the prospects of the case.

Those three cases were then consolidated in the first appeal to the 7th Circuit, which ruled 2-1 in November 2023 that the preliminary injunctions should be denied. That decision was then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the cases at this juncture, sending them back to the lower courts for full proceedings.

In September, McGlynn conducted a weeklong trial of the case in the Southern District, and on Nov. 8 handed down a decision declaring the law unconstitutional and enjoining the state from enforcing it. But he stayed the effective date of that order for 30 days, giving the state time to appeal.

Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office appealed almost immediately and requested a stay of McGlynn’s order. On Thursday, just a few days before McGlynn’s order would have gone into effect, the 7th Circuit granted a stay, keeping the law in effect.

Meanwhile, the two other cases still are pending before different judges of the Northern District but have not yet gone to trial.

In its order Thursday, the 7th Circuit panel took notice of those other cases, where different judges have declined to issue preliminary injunctions.

“The state laws cannot be valid in some parts of Illinois and invalid elsewhere,” according to the panel.

“This does not necessarily imply that the three cases will again be consolidated on appeal; we are reluctant to delay disposition of this appeal indefinitely just because similar litigation is pending in other districts,” according to the order. “Still, the only way to preserve the status quo statewide is to enter a stay in this suit.”

The panel included Judges Frank Easterbrook, Michael Brennan and Amy St. Eve.

Just this year, other federal circuits have reached similar conclusions in at least two other instances, according to the panel. Those included one in March when the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals refused to block enforcement of a Rhode Island assault weapons ban, and another in August when the 4th Circuit upheld a Maryland assault weapons ban.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.