Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has applied for a 30-day extension on the Seventh Circuit’s 180-day stay on their ruling that Illinois’ prohibition on possession of guns outside the home was unconstitutional in Moore v. Madigan. The State Journal-Register and others are covering this:
CHICAGO (AP) –– Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan on Monday filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals seeking a 30-day delay of a mandate for the state to enact a concealed gun carry law.
Madigan said she filed the motion in order to give Gov. Pat Quinn time to review legislation passed last week.
I guess this is where we see how the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals feels about the Illinois’ Legislature’s waiting until the last hours of the last day of their session to take this issue seriously.
We should know by the end of the week the decision in this case.
The Illinois Press Association isn’t happy about being denied access to the administrative appeals board hearings that are set up in the bill, either.
A separate story:
(AP) – The Illinois Press Association has come out in opposition to concealed-carry legislation the General Assembly approved last week on the grounds that a newly created licensing review board’s exemption from the Freedom of Information and Open Meetings acts is unwarranted.
“The rationale is simple. There should not be secret government,” said Don Craven, attorney for the association.
The legislation, which establishes the state’s first-ever system for people to carry weapons in public, also creates a seven-member panel responsible for reviewing concealed-carry permit applications red-flagged by local law enforcement.
Absolute exclusion from both acts is effectively “sealing all records of the board,” not just the identity of concealed-carry permit applicants, which is not information the group is after, said Josh Sharp, the association’s director of government relations.
Given the mainstream media’s reputation of utter irresponsibility handling information about carry permit holders (click link for 25.1 million reports of media irresponsibility), I can’t muster a lot of sympathy here for the Illinois Press Association.
If this were a gay marriage bill, I’d bet Quinn would need all of about two minutes to “review” it. The bill has been around for weeks. How much more time does he need?