by Dave Workman | Senior Editor
In a unanimous ruling that amounted to a slap in the face to the gun prohibition lobby, the Illinois State Supreme Court ruled that a section of state gun law violated the constitutional right to keep and bear arms, and affirmed that this right extends outside the home.
The ruling, written by Justice Robert R. Thomas, was hailed by the Second Amendment Foundation as a significant step in the right direction that would not have been possible without SAF victories in McDonald v. City of Chicago and Moore v. Madigan. Justice Thomas referred to both cases in his 11-page ruling.
The case at issue, of Illinois v. Alberto Aguilar, dates back to June 12, 2008, slightly more than two weeks prior to the US Supreme Court’s ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller. It challenged a section of the law that prohibited carrying firearms outside the home that, according to the court, “…amounts to a wholesale statutory ban on the exercise of a personal right that is specifically named in and guaranteed by the United States Constitution, as construed by the United States Supreme Court. In no other context would we permit this, and we will not permit it here either.”
As the Seventh Circuit correctly noted, neither Heller nor McDonald expressly limits the Second Amendment’s protections to the home,” Thomas wrote for the court. “On the contrary, both decisions contain language strongly suggesting if not outright confirming that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms extends beyond the home.”
SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb was pleased with the ruling, noting that SAF was not involved in the case.
“Here we have a state Supreme Court declaring a section of state law unconstitutional under the Second Amendment,” Gottlieb said.
The ruling was significant for gun rights in a state that was, until the ruling by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in SAF’s Moore case, the last holdout on concealed carry. The federal court had given Illinois lawmakers 180 days to fix it, and many were reluctant to support legislation creating a system of carry in the Prairie State, but they had Illinois supremes strike ban on carry outside the home little choice in the matter.
“This is one more court rejection of claims by anti-gunners that the right to keep and bear arms is somehow confined to the home,” Gottlieb noted.
Illinois had to be “dragged kicking and screaming” into adopting a concealed carry statute earlier this year. The original legislation was sidetracked by an amendatory veto from Gov. Pat Quinn, an anti-gun Democrat.
But the General Assembly overrode that veto, with the House voting 77-31 to reject Gov. Quinn’s veto, and the Senate following suit by voting 41-17.
At that time, Gottlieb noted almost presciently, “The Second Amendment, affirmed as protective of an individual right by the US Supreme Court, is not limited to the confines of one’s home or business. There is not only a right to keep arms, but to bear them, and that most assuredly applies beyond someone’s doorstep.”
