Here’s the litigation update from GunNews. Not a lot of movement on local stuff.
GSL’s challenge to the PICA gun and magazine ban.
We have a court date set for September 16th for the trial in federal court challenging the so-called “Protect Illinois Communities Act” gun and magazine ban. The trial will likely take about a week and Judge Stephen McGlynn will issue his decision in the weeks that follow.We anticipate he will rule in our favor. After all, he issued a preliminary injunction last year in our favor indicating that we had a high likelihood to prevailing on the merits.
Because of something known as “judicial economy” we’ll no doubt land in front of the same three-judge panel that erroneously ruled against us last fall. Despite the warning from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas not to relegate the Second Amendment to a second class right, I predict their egos won’t allow that.
Instead, we anticipate they will instead side with the Bianchi decision from the Fourth District Court of Appeals, even though that isn’t controlling like a SCOTUS decision. This will likely take until mid- to late-next year as anti-gun judges love (l – o – v – e) to drag these cases out, hoping for the death or retirement of conservative justices on the US Supreme Court.
Assuming the US Supreme Court doesn’t accept the almost certain appeal by the good guy plaintiffs in Bianchi and then gut these gun and magazine bans (and regulations) nationwide, we will ultimately likely appeal our case to SCOTUS.
FOID challenge.
We had a court date for the end of August at the state’s Fourth District Court of Appeals but that was pulled and they asked for briefs on how the Rahimi decision from SCOTUS impacts our case. Those briefs have been submitted and we’re awaiting them to schedule a new oral arguments date.This one will undoubtedly end up in front of the Illinois Supreme Court. We don’t have a lot of confidence in them striking down the FOID Act, so we’ll likely be filing a writ of certiorari with the US Supreme Court to hear that one as well. That will likely be in the 2027 time frame.
We wish we had better news sooner, but the court system moves at the speed of smell on a good day. Overall we remain very optimistic for favorable decisions. It’s just that we have to remain patient and keep the faith.
And Todd Vandermyde with more from the last week of August.
Thank you!