A half-score of years in the past, Illinois’ most aggressive gun rights group Weapons Save Life a lawsuit difficult Prepare dinner County’s (then) new gun and ammunition tax. Following these 10 years within the courts, now we have two orders from Illinois Courts— together with the Illinois Supreme Court docket—saying the ordinance establishing the tax was and stays unconstitutional. But, Prepare dinner County officers have advised us in latest days they haven’t any intention of ceasing assortment of those (unconstitutional) taxes. Welcome to the lawless Windy Metropolis.
I work because the Weapons Save Life Govt Director for my day job. To this present day, I vividly bear in mind the deposition I underwent for this authorized problem on the Prepare dinner County constructing in downtown Chicago. It felt like an previous cop present from the Seventies with grungy partitions, naked lightbulbs, chilly metallic desks and uncomfortable chairs. The primary significant query, “What’s your spouse’s favourite gun and why?”
“A Colt Commando .38 snubnose as a result of she likes it greatest, I suppose,” I replied.
The deposition went on for hours. Supposedly they didn’t have a bottle of water due to finances constraints so that they introduced me a miniature disposable cup of lukewarm water that they’d stuffed from the toilet. (I didn’t ask in the event that they obtained the water from the tap or … elsewhere.) And whereas I couldn’t carry a handcuff key into the constructing on the safety checkpoint (they aggressively seized my keys), they handed me an 18-inch wood bat with the toilet keys hooked up after I requested to make use of the amenities. Makes good sense from a safety standpoint, proper?
The case moved by means of the courts at a snail’s tempo, with the the Prepare dinner County Circuit Court docket and the First Appellate Courts each ruling that the focused tax on a elementary proper doesn’t run afoul of U.S. Supreme Court docket precedent or the Second Modification. This regardless of landmark civil rights circumstances together with Harper v. Board of Elections (ballot tax) and Minneapolis Star-Tribune v. Commissioner (tax on printer’s ink).
We appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court docket who, in 2021, reversed the decrease courts and dominated the tax ordinance violated the Uniformity Clause of the Illinois State Structure. (The Illinois Supreme Court docket sidestepped 2nd Modification issues…) As a part of that call, they remanded the case again to the trial court docket to situation an order for a abstract judgement in favor of Weapons Save Life.
Prepare dinner County’s Board handed an amended taxing ordinance, claiming they remedied the deficiencies cited by the Illinois Supreme Court docket. Then they boldly moved to have our complete case thrown out after the Illinois Supreme Court docket had dominated in our favor. That’s chutzpah.
For 4 years the case has languished, however lastly on January tenth, a Prepare dinner County Circuit Choose lastly did what the Illinois Supreme Court docket ordered.
Quick ahead a number of days. Our aspect contacted the Prepare dinner County officers asking a few plan to finish the gathering of the taxes in an orderly method.
Prepare dinner County’s response, in so many phrases: “We now have no intention of ending the gathering of taxes on gun and ammo gross sales in Prepare dinner County.”
There you’ve got it.
A transparent breakdown of the rule of regulation in Prepare dinner County, Illinois, and a narrative that’s absolutely to be continued…
