A legal advocacy organization filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday targeting an Illinois law that forces residents to get a state license before they can own any gun or ammunition.
The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) filed the lawsuit, called Laurent v. Kelly, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The group wants the court to declare the Illinois Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) Card Act unconstitutional and block the state from enforcing it.
Under the current law, Illinois residents must apply for a FOID card through the Illinois State Police to legally possess a firearm or ammunition for any reason or any amount of time. To get the card, citizens have to clear a background process to prove to the government that they are legally allowed to own a gun.
The lawsuit is representing three Illinois residents: Navy veteran Christopher Laurent, Chicago restaurant owner Kim Dalton, and liberty advocate Justin Tucker. Currently, Illinois and Massachusetts are the only two states in the country with this type of blanket licensing requirement for gun possession.
The NCLA argues that the law flips how American liberty is supposed to work by making citizens prove they are innocent before exercising a constitutional right. They state the law violates the Second Amendment, which protects the right to bear arms, and the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees due process.
Attorneys for the group argue that fundamental rights should not require advance permission from the state.
“If you have a right to do something, that means you don’t need to ask the government’s permission,” said Jacob Huebert, Senior Litigation Counsel for the NCLA. “And if the government has a lawful reason to take away your rights, it has to prove its case in court. That’s how it’s supposed to work in America—but that’s not how it works now in Illinois. The court should explain to Illinois officials that they can’t force people to get a license to exercise a constitutional right—and they can’t treat people as guilty until they prove themselves innocent.”
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John Vecchione, another senior litigation counsel for the group, compared the firearm license to other constitutional freedoms. “We don’t ask a bureaucrat for permission to speak or worship,” Vecchione said. “We shouldn’t have to ask one before exercising the right of self-defense either.”
The legal group clarified that the lawsuit does not aim to strike down every single gun control law or licensing system. Instead, it focuses strictly on the requirement to get a license just to have a gun at all.
“This case is not about invalidating all licensing related to guns,” said Mark Chenoweth, President and Chief Legal Officer for the NCLA. “But requiring people to get permission from the government in advance even to obtain a gun for hunting or for self-defense in the home is outrageous. The point of having Constitutional rights is that we do not have to get the government’s permission to exercise them.”
The federal court will now review the case to determine whether the state’s licensing system can legally stand.
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