U.S. District Judge Iain Johnston of the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois made the ruling on Aug. 30. His ruling was based on the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which said that the ability to carry a pistol in public was a right guaranteed under the Second Amendment. The Bruen ruling also found a similar prohibition in New York state unconstitutional.
"[The] defendants failed to meet their burden to show an American tradition of firearm regulation at the time of the [nation's] founding," Johnston's ruling stated. It also added that in future decisions, the judiciary should evaluate firearms regulations in light of the "historical tradition of firearm regulation."
Under the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 standard for seeing whether firearms regulations fall under the Constitution, the government must demonstrate that the measure is within U.S. historical traditions. Treating "any place where the government would want to protect public order and safety as a sensitive place casts too wide a net ... [and] would seem to justify almost any gun restriction," Johnston wrote.
He also rejected Illinois state attorneys' arguments that the Bruen test did not apply in this case because the state, which owns the property, can regulate what individuals take onto its property.
"Individual rights [aren't] nullified on public property," he wrote. Further, he added that the court found that the Second Amendment only "protects against governmental – not private – intrusion on rights and liberties."
According to ABC News, the Prairie State became the last state to approve concealed carry in 2013. However, the law still established places off-limits to firearms, such as public arenas, hospitals, buses and trains. (Related: 2nd Amendment 'does not exist' in some NY courtrooms according to one judge presiding over the trial of a gunsmith.)
Attorneys for the Prairie State plan to challenge ruling
A spokesperson for Illinois Attorney General (AG) Kwame Raoul said he is reviewing the decision and would likely file an appeal. The spokesperson reiterated that until there's a final judgment, gun owners in the state should continue to abide by concealed carry provisions. The defendants in the case include Raoul himself and four others – DeKalb County State's Attorney Rick Amato, DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin, Cook County State's Attorney Kimberly Foxx, and Lake County State's Attorney Eric Rinehart.
ABC News pointed out that Johnston's ruling applies only to the four plaintiffs – three Chicago-area residents and another from DeKalb County who hold concealed carry licenses. According to court papers, it does not strike down the larger gun ban in public transit in Illinois.
The plaintiffs challenged the gun ban in 2022, pointing out that the prohibition – which applies to Chicago Transit Authority buses and trains on the Metra commuter rail system – violated their Second Amendment right to self-defense. "
"The public transportation carry ban prohibits persons from carrying a firearm while accessing public transportation [and] severely restricts plaintiffs from exercising their right to self-defense outside of the home," the plaintiffs wrote. "This directly violates the Second and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution as held by the U.S. Supreme Court."
Earlier this year, Raoul said the plaintiffs did not sufficiently establish that restrictions on their ability to carry firearms on public transportation infringed on their Second Amendment rights. "All this suit would achieve is shifting the nature of the criminal charge from one statute to another; the desired conduct would still be unlawful," his office wrote at the time.
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