BELLEVUE, WA – Attorneys for the Second Amendment Foundation and its allies have filed a brief supporting their earlier motion for summary judgment in a federal challenge of Illinois’ ban on concealed carry by young adults in a case known as Meyer v. Raoul.
The brief was filed today in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. The lawsuit was filed in May 2021 by SAF, the Illinois State Rifle Association, Firearms Policy Coalition, Inc., and three private citizens in the 18-21-year age group, David Meyer, Eva Davis and Mitchell Nalley. They are represented by attorneys David G. Sigale of David G. Sigale, P.C. in Wheaton, Ill., Christian D. Ambler of Stone & Johnson in Chicago and David H. Thompson, Peter A. Patterson and William V. Bergstrom, all with Cooper & Kirk PLLC in Washington, D.C.
Named as defendants are Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly, State’s Attorney of Fayette County Joshua C. Morrison, State’s Attorney of St. Clair County James Gomric, State’s Attorney for Kendall County Eric Weis, Fayette County Sheriff Christopher Palmer, St. Clair County Sheriff Richard Watson and Kendall County Sheriff Dwight A. Baird, in their official and individual capacities.
As noted in the new brief, the Illinois carry ban for young adults “must be declared unconstitutional, and its enforcement enjoined, because the Plaintiffs’ Second Amendment rights ‘demand our unqualified deference’,” as explained in the Supreme Court’s Bruen ruling last June. “The text of the Second Amendment leaves no doubt that it extends to typical, law-abiding 18-to-20-year-olds.”
“The Supreme Court has made clear that the right to bear arms applies to ALL Americans,” said Adam Kraut, SAF’s Executive Director. “Based on our nation’s history and tradition, there is no basis for excluding young adults between the ages of eighteen and twenty from being able to exercise their Second Amendment rights as any other adult over the age of twenty-one may. The Second Amendment is enshrined in the Bill of Rights and continuing to deprive these individuals of their ability to fully exercise their rights amounts to nothing more than treating the Second Amendment as a second class right.”
Gottlieb noted citizens are considered adults at age 18 for all kinds of other purposes, including marriage, joining the military, starting a business, and entering into a contract so it makes sense they should be considered old enough to exercise a constitutionally-protect right to bear arms outside the house or in an automobile.
“We’ve been pursuing this case for 20 months,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “It is time for the court to bring this case to a conclusion for the benefit of all young adults.”