SPRINGFIELD – Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Haine is asking the Illinois Supreme Court to declare Gov. Pritzker’s gun law unconstitutional, and state’s attorneys in 32 other counties are standing with him.
Haine filed a brief as friend of the court on April 5, calling on the Justices to affirm Macon County Associate Judge Rodney Forbes in striking down the law.
Forbes found the law violated a guarantee of equal protection in the Illinois Constitution.
He found it also violated the Illinois Constitution’s prohibition on special legislation by exempting certain groups without explaining why.
Pritzker appealed his decision directly to the Supreme Court.
Though Haine asked the Justices to affirm Forbes, he asked them to do it for a different reason.
He argued that they should strike down the law as a violation of the right to bear arms in the Second Amendment to the U. S. Constitution.
He wrote that the law placed state’s attorneys in an ethical and legal quandary.
He added that they swear to protect and defend the rights of citizens in their counties and they swear to support the U.S. and Illinois constitutions.
“The constitutional infirmity is especially clear because the Act’s prohibition on possession of arms widely used for self defense extends to the home, where the need for defense of self, family, and property is most acute,” he wrote.
Haine wrote that the U.S. Supreme Court found a state may not prohibit a class of arms that society overwhelmingly chooses for the lawful purpose of self defense.
“It is no answer to try to recast the Act as a mere regulation, not a ban, in the hope of subjecting it to a more flexible constitutional test,” he wrote.
He argued that Illinois precedents balanced Second Amendment rights against various government interests.
“But such balancing tests have been squarely repudiated by the United States Supreme Court in N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen,” he wrote.
Haine wrote that Bruen rejected reliance on any test of means and ends.
He wrote that it mandated a test rooted in the Second Amendment as informed by history.
“Specifically, if a law burdens conduct covered by the Second Amendment’s plain text, the law is unconstitutional under Bruen unless the law has a proper analogue in the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation,” the brief stated.
Haine wrote that Bruen put the burden on government to prove a regulation is part of a tradition.
He wrote that it found discussions which took place 75 years after ratification of the Second Amendment don’t provide as much insight into its original meaning as earlier sources.
He added that it refused to consider any 20th Century history.
He wrote that its analysis was simple, straightforward, and devastating to the constitutionality of a ban on nearly every modern semiautomatic firearm.
Just as the First Amendment protects modern communications and the Fourth Amendment applies to modern searches, the Second Amendment applies to arms that did not exist at the founding, he wrote.
Haine argued that the gun law bans nearly every modern semiautomatic rifle and pistol.
He wrote that it bans devices capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition for long guns and more than 15 rounds for handguns.
He added that it makes it unlawful to knowingly manufacture, deliver, sell, import, or purchase an assault weapon.
Haine argued that as of next Jan. 1, it will be unlawful to possess an assault weapon even within a home for self defense.
“Yet this class of weapon includes the single most popular type of rifle in the country, the AR-15 styled platform, and many others commonly owned by law abiding citizens for self defense and other lawful purposes,” he wrote.
He wrote that firearms like the AR-15 may seem strange and menacing, “but they are quite normal and valuable to many millions of responsible, law abiding Americans.”
Haine noted that about 2.8 million AR-15 style rifles were produced or imported into the United States in 2020.
He wrote that a recent survey of gun owners found about 25 million Americans own or have owned an AR-15 style rifle.
“In fact, the widespread use of these firearms is precisely what led the sponsors of the Act to target them,” he wrote.
He wrote that the Second Amendment also protects the magazines that the law bans.
Haine argued that a right to keep and bear arms necessarily includes a right to keep and bear the ammunition and magazines without which firearms cannot function.
He wrote that millions of law abiding men and women own tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of detachable magazines for use with semiautomatic firearms.
He added that roughly 115 million privately owned magazines in the United States are capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition.
Haine wrote that every AR-15 style rifle comes standard with magazines of 15 rounds or more.
He wrote that their features make them especially suitable for personal and family defense.
He added that they are simple to fire and detachable magazines make it easier to reload in a stressful circumstance of defending self, family, or property.
Haine wrote that they shoot a relatively inexpensive and common cartridge that has sufficient stopping power but quickly loses velocity after passing through a target.
“This is key, because household members are present for almost a third of all burglaries and become victims of violent crimes in more than a quarter of those cases,” the brief stated.
Haine argued that civilians use firearms for home defense up to 2.5 million times per year.
He wrote that firearms banned by the law are also well suited for hunting and sport and are not the normal choice of criminals.
He noted that 364 homicides were committed with rifles in 2019, compared to 6,368 with handguns, 1,476 with sharp objects, 600 with hands and feet, and 397 with blunt objects.
Haine wrote that while the U.S. Supreme Court has noted that the Second Amendment doesn’t protect dangerous and unusual weapons, that doctrine is no help to the gun law.
“An unusual weapon is simply the opposite of a weapon that is common,” he wrote.
Haine went on to explain that the types of arms banned by the law were not new even in 1791.
He added that the first firearm that could fire more than ten rounds without reloading was invented around 1580.
State’s attorneys joining Haine’s brief:
- Michael Hill, Brown County
- Lucas Fanning, Calhoun County
- Aaron Kaney, Carroll County
- Kyle Hutson, Clark County
- J. D. Brandmeyer, Clinton County
- Eric St. Ledger, Edwards County
- Aaron Jones, Effingham County
- Douglas Dyhrkopp, Gallatin County
- Justin Hood, Hamilton County
- Bobi James, Hancock County
- Rachel Mast, Henderson County
- Catherine Runty, Henry County
- James Treccia, Jasper County
- Sean Featherstun, Jefferson County
- Ben Goetten, Jersey County
- Allendorf, Jo Daviess County
- Tambra Cain, Johnson County
- Scott Rueter, Macon County
- Tim Hudspeth, Marion County
- Grace Simpson, Mercer County
- Ryan Webb, Monroe County
- Mike Rock, Ogle County
- David Searby, Perry County
- Lisa Casper, Pulaski County
- James Kelley, Randolph County
- Chuck Laegeler, Schuyler County
- Tyler Tripp, Union County
- Jacqueline Lacy, Vermilion County
- Thomas Siegel, Warren County
- Daniel Janowski, Washington County
- Kevin Kakac, Wayne County
- Denton Aud, White County