Overview
- Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department’s civil rights chief, will present five minutes of oral argument supporting challengers to Illinois’ 2023 law.
- The panel set Sept. 22 for arguments, allotting more than 40 minutes each to Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s team and the gun-rights groups.
- In June, the DOJ filed a brief contending the banned semiautomatic firearms are in common use and protected by the Second Amendment.
- Illinois’ statute bans sales of specified semiautomatic rifles, shotguns and handguns, caps magazine capacity, and requires registration of covered firearms owned earlier.
- The case follows conflicting rulings and applies the Supreme Court’s Bruen historical-tradition test, with several justices signaling interest in reviewing a final decision.