OREGON – Ogle County State’s Attorney Mike Rock and 34 other prosecutors across Illinois have filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, arguing that the state’s 2023 assault weapons ban is unconstitutional. The brief claims the law, which bans the sale and manufacture of AR-15-style firearms and similar weapons, violates the Second Amendment by restricting guns commonly owned by law-abiding citizens and lacking historical precedent.
“There has been a ruling by a judge that the assault weapons ban is unconstitutional. So what we did is the concerned state’s attorneys around the state filed what’s called an amicus curiae brief, which is just a friend of the court brief saying that we believe that the judge who found it unconstitutional was correct,” he said. “It’s up on appeal right now.”
The appeal follows a federal district court ruling in late 2024 that deemed the law unconstitutional. Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Haine led the filing, with attorneys from counties including Carroll, Clay, Effingham, Jo Daviess, Livingston, and Vermilion joining.