Seventh Circuit reaffirms Illinois public transit gun restrictions

CHICAGO (CN) — A panel of Seventh Circuit judges on Tuesday upheld an Illinois law that prohibits people from carrying guns on public transportation.

Illinois law requires residents to obtain a firearm owners’ identification card before obtaining a concealed carry permit and gun. Four men filed a lawsuit in 2022, challenging a provision that bans carrying guns on public transportation, unless unloaded and secured.

In 2024, a lower court sided with the plaintiffs, finding the restriction violated the Second Amendment.

The Seventh Circuit disagreed and reversed the decision, citing the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen , which requires modern firearm regulations to align with historical traditions of firearm ownership and use.

Bruen affirmed that states can restrict firearms in so-called “sensitive spaces,” and it specifically identified legislative assemblies, courthouses and polling places as such.

U.S. Circuit Judge Joshua Kolar, a Joe Biden appointee, wrote in the panel’s 61-page opinion that Bruen’s analogical reasoning demands a wide lens. He explained that courts must compare the regulations, not the specific locations, and focus on how and why the government restricted weapons in these sensitive places.

“The sensitive places doctrine tells us that the appropriate balance allows for temporary restrictions in scattered, discrete places where the risk is simply different, and reminiscent of risks addressed by regulations in our past,” he wrote.

Alex Hemmer, the deputy solicitor general for the state of Illinois, argued before the Seventh Circuit panel in May that the Illinois statute is in line with firearm restrictions on 19th century passenger railroads, which passes the constitutional muster set by Bruen .

John Ohlendorf, who represented the plaintiffs, argued that Hemmer’s argument was a reach because these passenger railroads were controlled by private companies, not the government, at the time.

“Those are private rules,” Ohlendorf said. “They’re akin to my rules in my house that my kids can’t have guns.”

Hemmer maintained that, like schools and polling places, public transportation qualifies as a sensitive space where firearms should be prohibited.

“Like these sensitive places, public transit systems are owned and operated by the government, they’re characterized by crowded and confined spaces and they’re full of vulnerable individuals,” he said before a Seventh Circuit panel in May.

Kolar ultimately concurred and wrote that “any attempt to impose a test of strict similarity between historical and current regulations would not only run afoul of binding precedent, it would also jeopardize the carefully drawn balance of power between the federal government — including federal courts interpreting the U.S. Constitution — and the states.”

He likened the Illinois firearm restrictions to the federal government’s firearm restrictions on airplanes.

“We note these more recent regulations here only to demonstrate an unbroken chain of regulations in crowded and confined spaces,” Kolar wrote. “And like the transport exception in the public transit firearm restriction at issue here, federal law allows a passenger to carry an unloaded firearm ‘in baggage not accessible to a passenger in flight if the air carrier was informed of the presence of a weapon.’ Illinois’ approach with the public transit firearm restriction accords with Congress’ choices in a similar context, supporting its lawfulness.”

Kolar maintained that the panel’s decision should not stretch beyond reason, and that lower courts should not employ it as a test for all Second Amendment challenges. Joining Kolar on the panel were U.S. Circuit Judge Amy St. Eve, a Donald Trump appointee, and U.S. Circuit Judge Kenneth Ripple, a Ronald Reagan appointee.

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