Illinois Gun Requirement Is Unconstitutional: Judge

A customer shops for a pistol in Illinois in a file photograph. Scott Olson/Getty Images

A statewide requirement in Illinois for guns violates residents’ constitutional right to keep firearms in their homes, according to a new ruling.

“After analyzing all the evidence in this matter, this Court finds that the Defendant’s activity of possessing a firearm within the confines of her home is an act protected by the Second Amendment,” White County Resident Circuit Judge T. Scott Webb wrote in the Feb. 10 decision.

The state’s Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) Act mandates residents have a FOID card to legally possess guns or ammunition.

Vivian Claudine Brown, a state resident, was charged by prosecutors with possessing a rifle despite not having a FOID card. She filed a motion to find the law unconstitutional.

The U.S. Supreme Court has determined that the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment protects the right to bear arms and the right to self-defense.

Justices said in a 2022 ruling known as Bruen—which struck down a New York state law—that when restricting gun ownership, officials must show that the regulation in question is “consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

Webb said there are no historical analogs for the FOID Act, leading to his conclusion that it violates the Constitution.

“None of the laws cited by the State as being historically similar sought to disarm otherwise law-abiding citizens within the confines of their homes,” he wrote. “That is the essence of the FOID Act when the superficial layers of the Act are stripped away.”

A state appeals court previously found the FOID Act constitutional, pointing to how the U.S. Supreme Court has said that background checks, which are a key part of the FOID Act, are permissible. The Illinois Supreme Court has twice remanded the case.

Webb said the appeals court analysis was deficient and that following the decision “would be tantamount to judicial incompetence.”

Prosecutors did not respond to requests for comment by publication time.

“This is an important ruling in a case that has been up and down the Illinois judicial ladder a couple of times already,” Second Amendment Foundation founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb said in a statement.

“We expect the state to appeal again, which could put the case right back before the Illinois Supreme Court for the third time, and we are confident we will win. It’s hard to see how the Illinois Supreme Court avoids the constitutional issue, as they have done on the previous two visits.”