Cook County can’t use taxes on the sale of firearms, bullets and other ammunition to simply raise revenue to help the county offset the costs of handgun violence in Chicago and other parts of Cook County, the Illinois Supreme Court has ruled.
On Oct. 21, the Illinois Supreme Court struck down Cook County’s taxes on the sale of guns and ammunition as unconstitutional.
In 2012, the Cook County Board of Commissioners enacted a $25 fee on the purchase of firearms in the county.
Illinois Supreme Court Justice Michael J. Burke
| illinoiscourts.gov
Three years later, the county followed with a measure slapping taxes on ammunition of either a penny or 5 cents per cartridge, depending on the type of ammunition.
All of those taxes were challenged in 2015 by a collection of plaintiffs, including nonprofit firearm owners’ advocacy group, Guns Save Life, a Des Plaines gun shop and firing range, and an individual gun owner.
They argued the fees and taxes violated their rights to keep and bear arms, enshrined in both the U.S. and Illinois state constitutions. They also argued the taxes and fees violated another provision of the Illinois state constitution, commonly known as the uniformity clause.
The Illinois Supreme Court decision was authored by Justice Mary Jane Theis. Justices David Overstreet, Rita B. Garman, P. Scott Neville and Robert L. Carter concurred in the opinion.
Justice Michael J. Burke added a special concurring opinion.
Chief Justice Anne M. Burke took no part in the decision, according to the opinion.
The court’s majority recognized the tax on the sale of guns and ammo did “directly burden” the ability of Cook County residents to exercise their fundamental rights to “acquire a firearm and the necessary ammunition for self-defense.”
However, the justices ultimately did not address the claims that the taxes violated those rights.
Rather, they said, the taxes should be voided because they violated the uniformity clause.
That provision governs the manner in which the Illinois state government and its so-called local subdivisions – in this case, county governments – can impose taxes on Illinois residents.
Essentially, the uniformity clause has been interpreted by the Illinois Supreme Court, in part, to require state and local governments to make the tax line up with its stated purpose.
In this case, the Illinois Supreme Court said, Cook County enacted the taxes with the stated purpose of helping Cook County raise money to offset some of the “staggering economic and social cost of gun violence in Cook County.”
In support of that position, the state high court noted the county claimed the Cook County Health and Hospitals System alone spends about $30-$40 million a year to treat gunshot wounds. And those costs continue to increase, the county claimed.
“The County asserts that the tax is a source of funding for gun safety or violence prevention programs and a source of revenue for the criminal justice agencies charged with combatting gun violence, which benefit everyone in the County,” the justices noted.
But in its decision, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled the Cook County gun and ammo taxes failed to hold up under the uniformity clause, because the county never specified that the funds from the taxes would actually be used to accomplish those goals.
The justices said that standard is required in this instance, specifically because the taxes burdened the ability of Cook County residents to exercise a constitutional right.
“Under the plain language of the ordinances, the revenue generated from the firearm tax is not directed to any fund or program specifically related to curbing the cost of gun violence,” Justice Theis wrote in the decision.
“Additionally, nothing in the ordinance indicates that the proceeds generated from the ammunition tax must be specifically directed to initiatives aimed at reducing gun violence. Thus, we hold the tax ordinances are unconstitutional under the uniformity clause.”
However, Justice Michael Burke asserted the majority’s decision did not go far enough.
He noted Cook County had sought to defend the taxes on the basis of its constitutional authority to levy so-called home rule taxes.
A Cook County judge had ruled in favor of the county on that basis, as well.
But Michael Burke noted the Illinois state constitution does not give Illinois state or local governments the authority to regulate firearms by levying taxes. Rather, that authority can only be exercised through regulations enacted under the state’s so-called “police power.”
Michael Burke said he believed the majority decision in this case “wrongly leaves the door open” for Cook County or another local government to rewrite the tax ordinances, and seek again to use taxes to regulate gun ownership, and impinge on the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
“The only problem with the majority’s approach - and the guidance it offers the County - is that such counsel, if followed, would still violate the provision of the Illinois Constitution noted above that plainly states that the right of the individual to keep and bear arms is subject only to the police power, not the power to tax,” Michael Burke wrote.
“Thus, the majority is leading the County down a road of futility.”
Guns Save Life has been represented in the action by attorneys with the firm of Stone & Johnson, of Chicago.