Seventh Circuit stays ruling against Illinois assault weapon ban

CHICAGO (CN) — The Illinois assault weapon and extended ammo magazine bans are back in play as of Thursday afternoon, per an order from a Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals panel that freezes a lower court’s recent ruling against the bans.

“The absence of support in other circuits for the district court’s disposition lends strength to a conclusion that the Illinois statutes should remain in force until final appellate resolution,” the three-judge appellate panel wrote.

Illinois’ bans on possessing or trading assault weapons and high-capacity ammo magazines are codified in the Protect Illinois Communities Act. They have been subject to an ongoing, multifaceted legal battle since state Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker signed the Protect Illinois Communities Act into law in January 2023.

In their order, the appellate judges chided U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn — a Donald Trump appointee who ruled in November that the act was unconstitutional — for “noncompliance” with procedural rules governing judgement entries and injunction orders.

“Compliance with [the rules] remains necessary — essential, if any litigant anticipates enforcing the decision through the contempt power — and we trust that the district court will enter appropriate orders promptly without the need for a formal command by this court,” the panel writes.

The panel further notes that McGlynn ruled on only one of several federal suits challenging the Protect Illinois Communities Act, with other cases still unresolved. The judges conclude a stay on McGlynn’s ruling is necessary in order to preserve the status quo while those cases are pending — and ensure the bans are not considered legal in some parts of Illinois but illegal in others.

“The absence of support in other circuits for the district court’s disposition lends strength to a conclusion that the Illinois statutes should remain in force until final appellate resolution,” the appellate panel writes. “At least two other essentially identical suits are pending in other district courts within the Seventh Circuit. The three suits were addressed jointly… and they must be resolved the same way eventually.”

The bans took full effect this past January and have survived multiple challenges at the state and federal level, but not for opponents’ lack of trying.

The southern and northern Illinois federal courts issued contradictory rulings on the bans within days of each other in April 2023, with the the East St. Louis-based southern district enjoining the bans and the Chicago-based northern district refusing to enjoin them.

The Seventh Circuit panel heard oral arguments on multiple consolidated cases challenging the Protect Illinois Communities Act two months later — while the appellate panel was as divided over the issue as the federal courts, the majority ultimately decided in November 2023 to leave the bans in place pending a future, final mandate.

The Illinois Supreme Court also upheld the bans in an August 2023 ruling.

McGlynn — the same southern Illinois judge who tried to enjoin the bans in April 2023 — effectively overturned the Seventh Circuit’s and Illinois Supreme Court’s rulings in his November ruling following a September bench trial on the issue.

The Republican judge permanently blocked enforcement of the assault weapon and high-capacity magazine bans, as well as the criminal penalties for violating the bans.

Illinoisans who already owned assault weapons and extended magazines before Pritzker signed the Protect Illinois Communities Act into law were able to legally keep their weapons past the start of this year, so long as they registered them with the state. Illinoisans found in possession of unregistered assault weapons or extended magazines can be subject to felony charges, but this is another policy McGlynn decided Illinois could not enforce.

In his 168-page opinion, McGlynn bemoaned “depriving citizens of a principal means to defend themselves and their property in situations where a handgun or shotgun alone would not be the citizen’s preferred arm,” and what he called the ushering in of a “post-Constitution era.”

“Sadly, there are those who seek to usher in a sort of post-Constitution era where the citizens’ individual rights are only as important as they are convenient to a ruling class,” McGlynn wrote.

McGlynn’s ruling nevertheless anticipated an appeal, stipulating that the permanent injunctions against the Protect Illinois Communities Act would be stayed for 30 days.

The Seventh Circuit panel’s two-page, Thursday order staying McGlynn’s ruling falls within that timeframe.

The panel issuing the stay consists of U.S. Circuit Judges Frank Easterbrook, Michael Brennan and Amy St. Eve, a Ronald Reagan and two Donald Trump appointees, respectively.

Regardless of what the courts think, the majority of Illinois county sheriffs have said they will not enforce the bans.

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