Illinois Firearms Regulations Will Likely Land with State Supreme Court
A southern Illinois judge has ruled Illinois’ Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card unconstitutional, but the fate of the longtime program will likely land with the state Supreme Court.
The fate of the long-controversial Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card is likely to be decided in the coming months by the Illinois Supreme Court. A judge in White County in southern Illinois ruled the FOID card, which is required to own a gun in Illinois, was unconstitutional and it’s setting up a legal challenge that’s been a goal of gun rights groups for years.
For half a century, Illinoisans who wanted to buy a gun need the FOID card. They have to apply, pass a background check, and pay a small fee, currently $10.
“No one in Illinois is born with a Second Amendment right until they pay $10 and get a card,” said Richard Pearson, the executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association. “Well, that’s not what the Bill of Rights is about. That’s not what a fundamental right is about. You are born with these rights. You don’t have to pay the state or some state or government authority anything to have a fundamental right.”
Pearson said getting rid of the FOID card requirement has been a long-term goal of his. The FOID system has been plagued by backlogs which has made people wait for months, sometimes years for their card.
“A right delayed is a right denied,” he said. “The people applying for them don’t know why it’s taking two years. They might get a letter saying there’s an error on your application, but they don’t tell you what the error is. It’s a quagmire of delay and that’s a problem.”
There are several Republican-sponsored bills to scrap FOID altogether. Pearson said it’s redundant when someone must go through a background check to buy a firearm anyway.
“When it was passed, it may not have been, but it’s become redundant,” he said. “It’s become an unnecessary stumbling block.”
The White County judge’s ruling will be appealed by Attorney General Kwame Raoul. The FOID card has been seen by gun safety advocates as a necessary check to keep guns out of the hands of people who legally aren’t allowed to have one.
Democratic lawmakers in both the House and Senate have bills to strengthen the FOID system by requiring a full set of fingerprints to be sent to the Illinois State Police before issuing a card and making the ID valid for five years, instead of the current ten years. Neither Rep. Kathleen Willis (D-Addison) or Sen. Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago) responded to a request for explain their legislation.
The Illinoize also reached out to several gun control groups, including the Gun Violence Prevention Action Committee, Everytown for Gun Safety and the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which argued in favor of the constitutionality of the FOID system. None of those groups commented.
The Illinois Supreme Court is likely to decide the fate of the FOID system. Gun control advocates don’t seem to be concerned about one circuit court ruling against them. Instead, they’re confident in court precedents and the Democratic majority on the Illinois Supreme Court upholding the constitutionality of the FOID system. Still, the Illinois State Rifle Association said it was confident it would win in front of the state’s highest court.
“They should rule in our favor if they rule on the base of law,” Pearson said. “If they rule on the base of politics, it’ll be different. Of course, they’re political.”
If the FOID system is ruled to be constitutional by the Illinois Supreme Court, Pearson said his organization will challenge it all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. There’s no guarantee the US Supreme Court would take on the case, but the conservative majority in Washington may be more friendly to those looking to get rid of the FOID system once and for all.
No FOID-related legislation has moved thus far during the spring legislative session.
