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Plaintiffs suing over the ID requirement to own and possess not
just guns but ammunition say it violates their Second and 14th
Amendment rights. Attorney Jacob Huebert of the New Civil
Liberties Alliance filed the lawsuit in May, saying it’s been
around since 1967.
“And people have been decrying this as a violation of Second
Amendment rights, all along,” Huebert told The Center Square in
May. “But nobody until now, to my knowledge, has brought a
federal lawsuit like this one asking the courts to strike it
down, because it violates not only the Second Amendment, but
also your right not to be deprived of your liberty without due
process of law to get the phone card.”
Huebert said the U.S. Supreme Court has already made clear that
gun laws today must have an historical sibling from the founding
era.
“[The FOID card] totally denies everyone the right to keep and
bear arms completely unless and until they get this card,”
Huebert said. “And so then we look at are there any historical
analogs? Was there anything like what Illinois is doing at the
time of the founding? And, of course there wasn’t.”
Illinois State Police and Cook County asked for a delay in their
response, which was initially due in June. A judge granted that
extension. The eventual response was provided earlier this
month. Defendants denied the law violates civil liberties, among
the 75 other allegations made through the complaint.
The defendants say plaintiffs don’t have standing, “because they
have not suffered harm from the defendants’ actions,” that the
FOID card is a constitutional shall-issue licensing regime and
is “consistent with the Nation’s history and tradition of
firearm regulation.”
Defendants said they “deny that Plaintiff is entitled to the
relief requested in Plaintiff’s complaint and pray that this
honorable Court enter judgment against Plaintiff and in favor of
Defendants and such other relief as it deems appropriate.”
Illinois State Police “demand a trial by jury in this matter.”
Last week, Northern District of Illinois Judge Laura K. McNally
gave a deadline for a status update to include disclosures,
discovery and possible settlement by Oct. 28.
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