Appeals court keeps Illinois’ assault weapons ban in place

The order noted that while refusing to issue a preliminary injunction is not the same as upholding the law entirely, “the laws have enough support to remain in place pending the final resolution of plaintiffs’ suit.”

Illinois lawmakers passed the weapons ban in January 2023 in response to numerous mass shootings around the country in which AR-style rifles with large-capacity magazines were used. Among those was a deadly shooting at an Independence Day parade the previous summer in Highland Park.

The law bans the sale, purchase and manufacture of a wide range of firearms that are defined as “assault weapons,” as well as large-capacity magazines and certain kinds of attachments, including those that increase the rate of fire from a standard semiautomatic weapon.

The new law was quickly challenged in multiple lawsuits in state and federal court. In August 2023, the Illinois Supreme Court upheld the law against claims that it violated provisions of the Illinois Constitution. But the broader claims that it violates the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution are still a matter of legal dispute.

Read more: Illinois Supreme Court upholds assault weapon ban, but federal test remains

The various federal cases were eventually consolidated into three lawsuits – two in the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago and one in the Southern District in East St. Louis.

In April 2023, Judge Stephen McGlynn, of the Southern District, granted a preliminary injunction to block enforcement of the law while a trial of the case proceeded in his court, saying plaintiffs in that case were likely to prevail in the end. But two other judges in the Northern District denied identical motions, reaching an opposite conclusion about the prospects of the case.

Those three cases were then consolidated in the first appeal to the 7^th Circuit, which ruled 2-1 in November 2023 that the preliminary injunctions should be denied. That decision was then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the cases at this juncture, sending them back to the lower courts for full proceedings.

In September, McGlynn conducted a weeklong trial of the case in the Southern District, and on Nov. 8 handed down a decision declaring the law unconstitutional and enjoining the state from enforcing it. But he stayed the effective date of that order for 30 days, giving the state time to appeal.

Read more: Federal judge strikes down Illinois assault weapons ban, setting up likely appeal