* WAND…
Sangamon County Judge Jennie Ascher ruled Tuesday that the firearm owners identification (FOID) card is constitutional. […]
Although, the Attorney General’s office said this was a straightforward case. Assistant Attorney General Isaac Freilich Jones noted that people apply for FOID cards and the Illinois State Police issue the identification cards if they are not found to be criminals. Jones said there is no difference between waiting for a FOID card and waiting for a background check before buying a gun.
[Attorney Christian Ambler] later argued that there is no historical support for a law allowing states to require people to have a license before they can purchase guns. He said people did not face this type of burden when the Second Amendment was approved by Congress in 1789.
Yet, the Attorney General’s office stressed there is no way to prove that people living in the 18th century would disapprove of the FOID law. They also claimed that there is no world where $10 is an unreasonably high fee to pay for a FOID card. However, plaintiffs said there is no historical context for fees people would face before purchasing their firearms.
Judge Ascher agreed with the Attorney General’s office that the $10 fee is not unreasonable for people to pay for a FOID card.
* Center Square…
“The FOID card is destined to the dustbin of history because after all there were no FOID cards in 1791, and that’s the standard by which the judges and the courts are supposed to rule today,” [John Boch with the organization Guns Save Life] said. […]
Ascher did take into account the U.S. Supreme Court case from 2022 in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen.
“In particular, the standard for analyzing the scope of the Second Amendment ‘requires courts to assess whether modern firearms regulations are consistent with the Second Amendment’s text and historical understanding’ through a two-step process,” the judge wrote. “At the first step, a plaintiff bears the burden of showing that the ‘Second Amendment’s plain text covers’ the regulated conduct.”
The judge noted that Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly in his defense of the FOID card used Fordham University history professor Saul Cornell’s analysis of historic firearm regulation.
“There is ample historical evidence supporting the constitutionality of the FOID Act, and GSL’s facial challenge fails as the historical record demonstrates that laws ‘relevantly similar’ to the FOID Act have been part of American legal history from the Founding Era to present day,” the judge wrote.
- JS Mill - Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 12:55 pm:
Ambler is wrong. The FOID card is in “common usage” and has been far longer than the AR-15 or anything of its ilk.
Pick a lane.
- 47th Ward - Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 12:59 pm:
===there were no FOID cards in 1791, and that’s the standard by which the judges and the courts are supposed to rule today,…===
By that logic, any firearm that isn’t a muzzle-loader and didn’t exist in 1791 can be banned or severely regulated.
- JS Mill - Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 1:05 pm:
@47th is on to the originalists.
- H-W - Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 1:06 pm:
In 1791, there we no flush toilets, no electricity, no real medicine, etc.
In 1791, criminals were not allowed to possess weapons. If they did, the weapons were confiscated.
The background check is a historic concept (cf., “Wanted posters”).
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 1:17 pm:
Just wait, this FOID card thing is gonna backfire like in the film “Red Dawn” and it’s going to be bad for us all
- Allen Skillicorn, in Arizona
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 1:22 pm:
In 1791 Vermont became a state… there was no West Virginia…
My point? The new country was evolving in 1791… but FOID isn’t feasible?
- TheInvisibleMan - Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 1:30 pm:
“Allen Skillicorn, in Arizona”
That guy still owes me money for the bet he made that my internet would be faster and cheaper, after he voted to gut privacy protections for ISPs.
- TheInvisibleMan - Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 1:32 pm:
“@47th is on to the originalists.”
So is the judge
–laws ‘relevantly similar’ to the FOID Act have been part of American legal history **from the Founding Era** to present day,” the judge wrote.–
- DuPage Saint - Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 1:51 pm:
Well then no weapons on anything after 1791. And no weapons in Illinois was no Illinois
- Anyone Remember - Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 2:11 pm:
“… like in the film ‘Red Dawn’ … .”
Tomorrow’s invaders won’t go after ATF Form 4473. Prior to invasion they’ll have hacked NRA’s member list (& lists of state affiliates), and lists of organizations who think the NRA is too “soft” … .
- JS Mill - Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 2:18 pm:
=What’s next? No driver’s licenses? No prescriptions?=
Whelp, you don’t have a constitutional right to any of those so I guess the answer is…yep.
- Anyone Remember - Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 2:26 pm:
Don’t remember any mandatory insurance laws for animal drawn wagons … .
- Steve Rogers - Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 2:29 pm:
Since speed limits didn’t exist in 1791, I’m going to drive 120 mph home tonight. We’ll see how that explanation works to the police officer who pulls me over.
- thisjustinagain - Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 3:08 pm:
Illinois will once again have to be dragged into modern 2nd Amendment jurisprudence. Never mind that the FOID transforms a right into a privilege, and one that delays the exercise of the right, plus charging a tax (disguised as a ‘fee’) for APPLYING for the FOID even if the FOID is denied.
- Demoralized - Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 3:10 pm:
=Illinois will once again have to be dragged into modern 2nd Amendment jurisprudence==
And people like you will hopefully be dragged into the realm of common sense rather than your wild west approach to guns where you think you shouldn’t have any sort of regulations put on you at all.