Illinois Assault Weapons Ban Deemed Constitutional by Top Court

The Illinois Supreme Court upheld on Friday a state law restricting the manufacture, sale, and possession of assault weapons and other deadly armaments, ruling the law doesn’t violate citizens’ equal protections rights.

“The equal protection clause does not forbid the legislature from drawing distinctions in legislation among different categories of people as long as the legislature does not draw those distinctions based on criteria wholly unrelated to the legislation’s purpose,” Justice Elizabeth Rochford wrote in the 4-3 decision .

Police officers and other trained professionals were exempted from the ban.

"[W]e hold that the exemptions neither deny equal protection nor constitute special legislation because plaintiffs have not sufficiently alleged that they are similarly situated to and treated differently from the exempt classes,” Rochford wrote.

“The analysis applied to equal protection claims is the same under both the United States and Illinois Constitutions.” she wrote.

The plaintiffs, guns owners and a Second Amendment advocacy group, also waived in the circuit court “any independent claim that the restrictions impermissibly infringe the second amendment,” she wrote.

Dissent

Justice Lisa Holder White dissented, writing the state and federal constitutions give law-abiding citizens the right to possess firearms and “must not be infringed.”

"[I]f this court is to adhere to the Illinois Constitution, we cannot address the question of the firearm restrictions at issue in this case. Important as this case is, constitutionally embedded process matters,” she wrote.

“Where the legislature fails to honor our constitutionally mandated process, this court is duty bound to adhere to our constitution and require the legislature to do the same,” Holder White wrote.

Assault Weapon Ban

The Protect Illinois Communities Act (Pub. Act 102-1116) went into effect in January and restricts the import, purchase, sale, and possession of assault weapons, assault weapon attachments, and large capacity ammunition feeding devices. Gov. JB Pritzker (D) supported the legislation.

Lawmakers exempted certain classes from the law, including law enforcement agencies, law enforcement officers, corrections personnel, and “trained professionals.”

A state circuit court earlier this year ruled for the plaintiffs, who challenged the law’s legality because the “law-abiding public” isn’t exempted and thus denied equal protection under the state’s constitution.

Plaintiffs alleged groups exempted from the law, such as trained professionals, are “seemingly a protected class based upon their occupations” and are “wholly exempt based on their employment status.”

The exempted groups also enjoy “an economic franchise” in violation of the state’s special legislation rules.

On appeal, plaintiffs also claimed the law is a violation of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution. Rochford struck that argument down, writing that plaintiffs cannot raise new claims on appeal unless they were contained in an amended complaint.

Under state law, enacted laws are presumed to be constitutional, and plaintiffs bear the burden of proving a law’s unconstitutionality, Rochford wrote

The case is Caulkins v. Pritzker, Ill., No. 129453, opinion 8/11/23.