In seeming 4-3 decision, court's majority says gun ban doesn't violate equal protection rights. Dissents divided, as Pritzker-backed justice says the law wrongly allows cops to keep gun rights, and conservatives say lawmakers unconstitutionally OK'd the law
The law empowers Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, a staunch supporter of unlimited abortion rights, to use a state consumer fraud law to investigate, prosecute and potentially fine and shut down pro-life pregnancy centers if Raoul believes they are spreading "misinformation" about abortion
A Springfield appeals panel has called on Illinois' highest court to do more than just 'bluster' and follow through on threats to police state lawmakers who rely on prior leniency from the state Supreme Court to all but ignore constitutional rules governing how laws must be passed
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled counties and investors can't just pocket potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars from the sale of properties over relatively much smaller unpaid property taxes. States, like Illinois, and counties, like Cook County, are being warned that changes must be made or lawsuits will follow
The law would restrict lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of state laws and actions by Gov. JB Pritzker and other state officers to courts in Cook County and Sangamon County. It could yet, in turn, also be challenged as unconstitutional, critics say
A federal judge has issued a permanent injunction, forbidding state officials from enforcing laws enacted in 2021 forbidding out-of-state judicial campaign donations and limiting individual donations to $500,000. Critics said the laws were enacted to give Democrats a money edge in state Supreme Court races
Legislation backed by Illinois' powerful trial lawyers has moved rapidly to approval in Springfield. The new law would allow plaintiffs to demand punishing punitive damages from most private companies in personal injury lawsuits alleging wrongful death, while exempting governments and other favored entities from the same risk
Attorney Michael Kasper, who has for the decades represented Michael Madigan and other prominent Illinois Democrats, is now representing longtime controversial Proviso school board member Theresa Kelly in her effort to use a recount to find enough votes to keep the seat she has held for 23 years
McHenry County State's Attorney Patrick Kenneally sued the state because he believes the 'assault weapons' ban has left his office in untenable position of enforcing unconstitutional law. But Attorney Gen. Kwame Raoul admitted in court that Kenneally, other state's attorneys have no obligation to enforce the gun ban
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has asked the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals to stay the injunction entered by District Judge Stephen McGlynn, which had blocked the state from enforcing its ban on so-called 'assault weapons'
U.S. District Judge Lindsay Jenkins says the law holds up, even under recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings, because the country has a history of banning 'particularly dangerous' weapons, so the Illinois law doesn't violate the Second Amendment
The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals didn't explain its decision. But the order leaves in place, for now, a Chicago federal judge's ruling that the Second Amendment doesn't apply to particularly "dangerous" weapons, like the semiautomatic firearms banned by the new Illinois law
Justices Elizabeth Rochford and Mary K. O'Brien said plaintiffs can't prove they are biased in favor of the state gun ban, just because they each received $1 million in campaign donations from Gov. JB Pritzker and strong endorsements from gun control organizations in the 2022 elections
Lawyers for gun makers' trade group, the National Sports Shooting Foundation, and others have filed briefs seeking to undo a Chicago federal judge's order largely upholding the Illinois "assault weapons" ban, saying the reasoning doesn't hold up under the U.S. Supreme Court's recent rulings
A report from the Chamber of Progress, which speaks for many "progressive" minded big tech and ecommerce companies, says Illinois' controversial Biometric Information Privacy Act has harmed Illinois' economy and limited access to new tech offerings in the state, while enriching lawyers
Lawyers for plaintiffs say Justices Rochford and O'Brien both accepted millions in campaign contributions and endorsements from Gov. Pritkzer, other top Dems, and gun rights activists, making it difficult for public to believe they can be impartial on gun ban challenges
A coalition of business groups say potentially massive class action lawsuits under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, unbridled by the Illinois Supreme Court, are threatening the ability of Illinois to attract new business and new tech, and may lead to closures of nursing homes and other key businesses
Gov. JB Pritzker said it was "ridiculous" to ask if two Illinois Supreme Court justices should step aside from hearing constitutional challenges over cash bail and 'assault weapons' bans. But a never-enacted rule change recommended by the Illinois State Bar Association may have called for precisely that, because of Pritzker's campaign donations to the justices
A Chicago federal judge was wrong to say the state can 'evade' the Second Amendment and prior Supreme Court decisions by simply declaring certain guns as 'particularly dangerous,' the appeal says
