Village Appeals Judge's Ruling Striking Down Assault Weapons Ban

DEERFIELD, IL — The village plans to challenge last month's ruling striking down its assault weapons ban. Following a discussion in executive session Tuesday, the village board unanimously voted to ask its attorneys to file an appeal to an order from a Lake County judge that found the village violated state law and blocking it from enforcing its ban on possession of certain semi-automatic weapons.

After discussing the litigation in closed session, the mayor and village board directed Village Attorney Steve Elrod and Special Counsel Chris Wilson, a partner of the Chicago office of the law firm Perkins Coie, to file an appeal to the ruling from Lake County Associate Judge Luis Berrones, according to village staff.

A day before the ban was set to take effect last June, Berrones issued a temporary restraining order blocking Deerfield police from any enforcement. In his opinion last month, he found the village's April 2, 2018, ordinance — later amended by trustees to include a ban on magazines that hold more than 10 rounds in what Mayor Harriet Rosenthal called a "clean-up" — was preempted by state law.

Deerfield argued that its Assault Weapons Ban Ordinance was merely an amendment to its existing restrictions on safe storage and transportation of firearms it defined as "assault weapons."

The Illinois law that established the state's concealed carry and gun licensing framework was hurriedly crafted in response to a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in McDonald v. Chicago that found the Second Amendment right to keep guns at home for self-defense applies to the states. As a result, strict handgun bans in Chicago and Oak Park were invalidated, and the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals struck down the state's ban on carrying concealed firearms.

Prodded by a court-imposed deadline of 180 days to pass a new statewide firearm framework, Illinois lawmakers created the Firearm Concealed Carry Act, and the Firearm Owners Identification Card Act, which became effective shortly before their alloted time expired. The new gun laws allowed for a period of 10 days when municipalities were permitted to pass their own, stricter regulations on firearms. Many north suburban municipalities — Evanston, Highland Park, Highwood, North Chicago and Skokie among them — decided to pass their own assault weapon bans. Others, such as Deerfield and Northbrook, decided against it.

Deerfield did not begin to consider a ban on the weapons until Feb. 20, 2018, less than a week after a mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, when Rosenthal directed Elrod and staff to prepare a report on implementing a ban modeled on Highland Park's. The mayor said it was time to "revisit a complete ban on assault weapons," in a statement following the passage of the village's ban last April.

"Over four years ago, the state gave home rule communities a window of time to pass some type of assault weapon law with the understanding it could be revisited at a later date," Rosenthal said.

Deerfield argued the ban was permitted that because it passed an ordinance defining and regulating assault weapons and providing for their safe transport within the deadline, and because the state law said such an ordinance "may be amended."

In a pair of lawsuits challenging the ban, Deerfield residents Daniel Easterday and Jon Wambacher, with the backing of gun owner advocacy groups including the Second Amendment Foundation, Gun Save Life and the National Rifle Association, argued that the 2018 ordinance was not an amendment but should be seen as an entirely new law.

Berrones disagreed with Rosenthal's assertion that as long as municipalities passed "some type of assault weapons law" within the statutory deadline, village officials were free to implement a complete ban at anytime.

"In giving the language of [Sec. 13.1(c) of the Firearm Owners Identification Card Act] its plan meaning FOICA provided home rule units a one-time 10-day window from the date of this section's effective date to ban ownership or possession of assault weapons," Berrones wrote. "Deerfield clearly failed to enact such a ban within this 10-day window and therefore lost its opportunity to do so and cannot later amend its ordinance to impose such a ban."

Read complete March 22 order from Lake County Associate Judge Luis Berrones

The judge found that even if he conceded that the ban counted as an amendment and not a new ordinance, the law would still be unenforceable because the law trustees passed within the 10-day deadline did not conflict with the state law at all, unlike the ordinances from Highland Park and other Lake County communities. Following a challenge by a former state Senate candidate, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Highland Park ban to stand by denying a request to hear the case.

In its legal challenges, Deerfield has received complimentary services from the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which also backed the defense of Highland Park's ordinance. Last year, Rosenthal said the "vast majority" of the cost of the litigation would be covered by pro bono attorneys.

"They believe in the village's cause, they believe in the defense of the village's ordinance and they believe what you have done is lawful," Elrod, the village attorney for both Deerfield and Highland Park, told trustees last May. "They will be working with me to ensure a successful outcome to the litigation matters."

In their initial statement following Berrones' March 22 ruling, village officials described it as an "unprecedented interpretation" and "ripe for appeal" because it held Deerfield had, the judge said, "lost its authority to regulate possession or ownership of assault weapons and large capacity magazines."

In the April 16, 2019 statement from Deerfield's mayor and trustees announcing plans to appeal Berrones' ruling before next week's deadline, village officials repeated a portion of the initial statement verbatim:

"We continue to believe that these weapons have no place in our community and that our common-sense assault weapon regulations are legal and were properly enacted," both statements said. The first statement also noted that the village would continue not to enforce the ordinance, which was initially due to take effect on June 13, 2018

Nothing in Berrones' ruling prevents Illinois lawmakers from passing a statewide ban on specified semi-automatic firearms or magazines that can carry more than 10 rounds.

State Sen. Julie Morrison, a Deerfield Democrat, is continuing her efforts to advance a statewide assault weapons ban despite little sign of support from leaders of her party in Springfield. Legislation sponsored by Morrison that would allow municipalities to craft their own firearm regulations and assault weapons bans has repeatedly been left to die in committee. Her latest effort to introduce a statewide ban appears destined for a similar fate.

After she introduced Senate Bill 107 in January — the latest version of a bill aimed at restricting firearms described by Gov. JB Pritzker as "weapons of war" — Senate Democratic leaders returned it to the legislative limbo of assignments committee. No committee hearings were held, and no vote was taken on whether to advance the idea to the Senate floor, where Democrats enjoy a lopsided 40-19 majority. Though Pritzker called for a statewide assault weapons ban during the campaign and his party has a supermajority in both legislative chambers, the governor has not publicly backed Morrison's proposed ban since his inauguration.

The lack of action among lawmakers in Springfield suggests the 2013 state law at the center of the controversy over Deerfield's abortive firearm regulations will still be in place by the time the Illinois Appellate Court gets around to issuing a ruling on the matter.

Earlier:

• Judge Permanently Blocks Deerfield Assault Weapons Ban
  
• Statewide Assault Weapons Ban Proposed
  
• Deerfield Assault Weapons Ban Amended To Apply To Magazines
• Judge Blocks Deerfield Assault Weapons Ban Before It Takes Effect
• Village Gets Pro Bono Legal Defense In Assault Weapon Ban Suits
• Deerfield Gun Ban Doesn't Really Ban High-Capacity Magazines: Suit
• Assault Weapon Ban Challenged In Lake County Court
• Deerfield Bans Assault Weapons, High-Capacity Magazines