(The Center Square) – The Illinois Supreme Court continues to hear cases challenging the state’s laws around possessing firearms.
Malik Cedrick Bright had his Illinois Firearms Owner’s ID card revoked after being arrested in Cook County in 2023 and charged with felony aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. He was not convicted of the charge and had his card reinstated.
Representing the state, attorney Carson Griffis said the issue is of no legal significance.
“Bright’s challenge to the temporary suspension of his FOID card is moot,” Griffis told the justices Tuesday in Springfield. “His FOID card was reinstated in May 2023, and he did not make a clear showing that any mutinous exception applies.”
Representing Bright, attorney Thomas Maag said his client’s rights were violated.
“My client is a nonviolent person. He is a genuinely innocent man who was genuinely, falsely arrested and genuinely violated of its constitutional rights,” Maag told the justices.
Maag argued there are no founding-era principles that allow governments to go as far as he says Illinois State Police went with Bright.
“There is no historical analog to simply saying ‘I accuse you of a crime, therefore, you cannot keep and bear arms,’” Maag said.
But, Griffis defending the FOID law, said courts have given guidance on the issue.
“Federal courts of appeals have issued several decisions that have uniformly upheld a similar federal law that prohibits the acquisition of firearms,” Griffis said.
The justices took the case under advisement and could rule on the issue in the weeks or months ahead.
The Illinois Supreme Court last week heard cases concerning firearms possession.
A separate case involving the FOID requirement to possess a firearm within one’s own residence has bounced around Illinois’ judicial system for years.
In 2020, the Illinois Supreme Court majority opinion didn’t make a decision on the constitutionality of the law in Vivian Brown’s case, but instead cited a court rule calling into question the process the circuit court used.
In 2022, the Illinois Supreme Court again sent the case back, ordering a modified circuit court order that was originally entered in 2020.
Brown’s case continues to linger. A White County Illinois circuit judge last year found the state’s FOID card unconstitutional when enforced against someone possessing their firearms in their home.
