(The Center Square) – Another federal judge in the Norther District of Illinois denied a motion to block Illinois’ gun and magazine ban.
The case was filed Jan. 27 in the Northern District of Illinois federal court. Javier Herrera, a doctor of emergency medicine and Chicago native, sued Illinois state officials, and officials from Cook County and the city of Chicago, alleging Second and 14th Amendment violations. He motioned for both a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction against the law.
“Dr. Herrera is no stranger to Chicago violence and the acute need for self-defense,” the suit said. “During his medical residency, an armed attacker killed the attending physician on duty and two others at the hospital where he was working. He rendered aid at the scene.”
The suit alleges the ban on certain guns and magazines infringe on Herrera’s lawful exercise of his Second Amendment right.
“Dr. Herrera owns a Glock 45, a common handgun,” the suit said. “But state and local law prohibit the standard 17-round magazines that come with it.”
Herrera’s suit also attests he owns other firearms including two AR-15s, which he keeps outside of Cook County limits because of the county’s ban. Illinois law enacted Jan. 10, bans more than 170 firearms, including AR-15-style rifles. The law also bans any handgun magazines over 15 rounds and any rifle magazines over 10 rounds.
The rifles and magazines that Illinois, Cook County, and the City of Chicago target are in common use for lawful purposes, Herrera’s complaint says.
Another element Herrera challenged is the requirement that owners of such firearms before the ban register them with the state between Oct. 1, 2023, and Jan. 1, 2024.
“That intrusive registration requirement is ahistorical, unconstitutional and, in other countries, has been the first step on the way to confiscation of such weapons,” Herrera’s suit said.
Judge Lindsay Jenkins heard the case April 17. Tuesday, she denied motions for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction.
“Having considered the preliminary record at this stage, the Court concludes that Herrera is unlikely to succeed on the merits of his claim,” the judge wrote. “The challenged restrictions on semiautomatic weapons and large-capacity magazines in the City Code, County Code, and Illinois Act are consistent with ‘the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation,’ namely the history and tradition of regulating particularly ‘dangerous’ weapons.”
On the issue of gun registration, “The Court holds that the Illinois Act’s registration requirement is ‘consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation’ … Pre-colonial evidence suggests that colonies required gun registration in a variety of ways.”
Jenkins notes the recent case a separate Norther District federal judge ruled on Bevis v. Naperville, where Law Weapons owner Robert Bevis sued Naperville last year and amended the complaint earlier this year to include a challenge of the statewide ban. A judge there denied to block the law.
“This Court, like the Bevis Court, finds that the challenged laws ‘protect public safety by removing particularly dangerous weapons from circulation’ which would be ‘injured by the grant of injunctive relief,’” Tuesday’s order said.
The Bevis case is now in the Sevent Circuit Court of Appeals.
Hannah Hill with the National Foundation for Gun Rights which represents Bevis in the Naperville case had said previous precedent is clear. The standard is not dangerous or unusual, it’s dangerous and unusual. And, AR-15 rifles are not unusual, she said.
“The analysis stops there. Full stop. You cannot categorically ban commonly used weapons and nothing is more commonly used than the AR-15,” Hill said.
Gun control advocate John Schmidt with G-PAC praised Jenkins’ ruling.
“Judge Jenkins also upheld the new law’s requirement that owners of existing assault weapons must file with the Illinois State Police a report of ownership before the end of 2023,” Schmidt said. “That requirement had not previously been challenged.”
Messages to some of Herrera’s attorneys were not immediately returned.
Illinois’ gun and magazine ban faces a separate challenge with four cases consolidated in the Southern District of Illinois federal courts where plaintiffs challenge the law on Second Amendment grounds. Judge Stephen McGlynn heard oral arguments in that case earlier this month with a ruling expected in the weeks ahead. He could issue a preliminary injunction against the law, blocking enforcement statewide, or he could side with the state and keep the law in place. Either way, an appeal to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals is expected, and to the U.S. Supreme Court from there.
In state-level court, multiple challenges of the law are pending with temporary restraining orders in place blocking the ban from being enforced upon named plaintiffs. The state-level cases challenge the law on the grounds it violates equal protections by not applying to current or retired police or others in the the law enforcement and security sectors. A case from Macon County brought by state Rep. Dan Caulkins, R-Decatur, is set to be heard by the Illinois Supreme Court May 16.