Two attorneys, Paul Clement and Erin Murphy, who were involved in a successful Supreme Court case that overturned a New York concealed carry gun law, are now challenging the constitutionality of Illinois’ recent ban on assault weapons. The National Rifle Association is also supporting the lawsuit. Clement, a former solicitor general of the United States during the George W. Bush Administration, and Murphy, who also worked on the New York case, formed their firm after their previous employer, Chicago-based Kirkland & Ellis, decided to handle Second Amendment-related litigation no longer. The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in the Southern District of Illinois, and the plaintiffs include individuals, gun-related businesses, and the National Sports Shooting Foundation, Inc.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) has joined the National Sports Shooting Foundation in filing a lawsuit challenging the recently passed Protect Illinois Communities Act, which bans the sale of assault weapons and caps the purchase of magazines in the state. The suit is similar to the one brought by the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. In that case, the court struck down New York’s concealed-carry gun law with a 6-3 majority, ruling that it prevented law-abiding citizens from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms for self-defense. This is not the first legal challenge to the new law in Illinois, as the Illinois State Rifle Association filed its federal lawsuit last week, and at least three suits have been filed in county courts downstate.
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Bringing in the big guns? NRA, lawyers who helped win U.S. Supreme Court case train sights on Illinois’ assault weapons ban