To the Editor:
In a case decided April 2, 2020, the Illinois Supreme Court declined to decide a Second Amendment issue, and instead, referred the case back to the trial court in White County.
The case arose out of a misdemeanor criminal charge alleging that Mrs. Brown was found to have a gun in her home, but was not able to produce a Firearm Owners’ Identification Card as required by state law (Illinois Firearm Owners Identification Card Act (FOID Card Act) (430 ILCS 65/2(a)(1). Mrs. Brown challenged the constitutionality of the law, claiming that the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the Illinois Constitution, allowed her to have a gun in her home, for her own protection, without the requirement of a FOID card. The Circuit Court of White County agreed and declared the statute unconstitutional, as-applied to Mrs. Brown.
Because the White County judge declared the law unconstitutional, the case was appealed directly to the Illinois Supreme Court. In a 4-2 decision, the majority of the Supreme Court issued an opinion declining to answer the question: Was Mrs. Brown required, under the FOID Card Act, to have a FOID card because she owned a gun, and kept it in her home for self-defense if she would otherwise have qualified for the card, had she applied?
Although all of the interested parties in the case agreed that this question was the issue before the Illinois Supreme Court, the justices decided that they did not have jurisdiction to hear the case. The justices indicated that the trial judge had initially been given two reasons by which the criminal charge could be dismissed. In essence, one was that it was unconstitutional, and the other was that the FOID Card Act did not apply to Mrs. Brown. Therefore, according to the Supreme Court, the trial judge should have dismissed Mrs. Brown’s case based upon his finding that the FOID Card Act did not apply. This decision, to send the case back to the trial court, side-stepped the entire discussion of the Second Amendment and its relationship to Mrs. Brown’s circumstances.
The decision was unfortunate. This was a case that needed to be decided for all people of Illinois, especially gun owners, like myself. The police powers of the State only extend to reasonable requirements, and in my view, the trial judge got it right when he declared the FOID Card Act unconstitutional, “as-applied” to Mrs. Brown. This case has already been years percolating through the courts, and it will take several more years to decide the issue, wasting taxpayer money and judicial resources.
Fifth District Appellate Court Justice Judy Cates, and Democrat candidate for Illinois Supreme Court