David Sigale filed his brief yesterday in the Illinois Supreme Court case of Vivian Brown. Looking it over today, I liked what I saw. Sigale did a good job, scoring a solid base hit in his effort to overturn the FOID Act for Illinois residents.
You can download it and read it here.
Yes, Sigale missed the May 31st deadline. With the permission of the Illinois Supreme Court, he filed the brief yesterday. As a couple of people in comments in our story from yesterday noted, discussions/finger-pointing over the timing of the submission are now inconsequential since the late submission was allowed.
Again, the important thing is that the brief got filed.
No, it was not a home run brief similar to the Duncan v. Becarra case out of California (striking down the magazine ban), but again, David Sigale did a good job. Of course, I liked some parts of it better than others… but on the whole, I’m pleased. And I’m far from Mr. Sigale’s biggest fan.
No doubt some will criticize some parts of it, but some of those criticisms will be a Ford vs. Chevy type stuff. In the end Sigale, by himself, has given Kwame Raoul’s AG’s office quite a headache. The bottom line is that it won’t be a slam-dunk for the Kwame’s people to overturn that earlier decision from the Second Circuit striking down the FOID Act.
Not unless the Illinois Supreme Court wants to get spanked by SCOTUS.
We need to call his office every day and bug him about this
Glad to hear you like the brief. I have yet to read it and I’m not a lawyer.
This guy knows he’s going to be under a lot of scrutiny so I personally don’t see any reason to call him and bother him. Unless he screws up in this is another deadline. But that’s pretty unlikely.
Let’s not.
His argument focuses on long guns in the home. Th IL Supreme Court is undoubtedly under political pressure to maintain FOID as intact as possible, so they could restrict its application to handguns or use outside of the home. It would be tough to define such narrow restrictions, but I don’t think his argument supports the entire FOID act being thrown out.
I posted this a couple of days ago. This brief supports the case in question.
We do not need the FOID card but we also must work with the case as presented.
We need to get amicus briefs from other groups like GOA filed in support of Illinois gun owners in over-turning this horrible law.
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Over-all the brief is strong and exposes the states failure in the case to address the unconstitutionality of the Illinois FOID card law. The Brief address the Brown case specifically.
The only weak point I find in the brief is the separation of long guns and hand guns as interpreted by law.
Historically Long Guns and Hand Guns were considered a part of a Stand/Standard of Arms.
When Tench Coxe held the office of Purveyor of Public Supplies (Arms Purveyor) it was understood that “ARMS” as defined in the second article meant “STAND/STANDARD OF ARMS” which is a Rifle, a pistol, a bayonet. a sword (if you were an officer) Powder Horn and Shot Bag, which is your ammunition and assorted accouterments (Web Gear/shoulder bag, Bed Roll)
Tench Coxe referred to this as all of the terrible instruments of a foot soldier
I like this brief, I’m just glad the state accepted it 11 days late
I have yet to read the brief, so make no comment on the content itself. But to clarify a point, ILSUPCT, like SCOTUS, rules very narrowly. This means the Court will normally only address the applicability of FOID to long guns.