Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul finds himself in the unpleasant position of defending the indefensible.  It falls upon him to defend Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s new gun and magazine ban in the courts.  At a court hearing yesterday, Raoul got off to a rocky start.  Despite 450 attorneys working for him, Illinois’ top lawyer couldn’t even muster enough juris doctors to defend each of four named defendants in the first court hearing.

I know.  You’re probably like me reaching for a tissue at that news.

Just kidding.

Many if not most of Raoul’s attorney crew works in Chicago.  Those city slickers try to avoid going south of Interstate 80, which in the minds of more than a few Chicagoans represents the demarcation between their idea of civilization and cornfields, hicks and bumpkins that could star in Deliverance 2.

As an Illinois resident from south of the demarcation line at I-80, I can just imagine the reaction of Kwame’s attorneys being asked to travel four hours downstate, in person, to defend the Senate President and the Speaker of the Illinois House.  “You want me to go where?  That’s way down there in hillbilly country!  Besides, they probably don’t even have running water there.”

Anyway, it didn’t go well for AG Raoul.  First he tried to delay by asking for a new judge to hear the case.  The chief judge assigned a new jurist, but kept the hearing time at 11a.m. on Wednesday.

Rejected on the first request, Raoul’s office then asked for a week-long delay in the hearing.  Bzzt.

In the end, the hearing happened and only the named defendants of the Governor and Attorney General had legal representation.  The Attorney General’s office left the Senate President and the House Speaker without any legal counsel.

That’s right, Kwame Raoul has 450 attorneys and he couldn’t get four of them to show up in Effingham for an emergency hearing.  Meanwhile, Attorney Tom Devore moved forward with asking for a temporary restraining order to block enforcement of HB-5471, the Draconian new gun and magazine ban that bans the hottest-selling firearms for personal defense in the Land of Lincoln.  And a whole lot more.

The Illinois Review has some details of the hearing.  A decision is expected by end of business Friday on the motion for a temporary restraining order.

On Wednesday morning, in an emergency hearing to discuss, what many are calling, an “unconstitutional” assault weapons ban, Effingham County Judge Joshua Morrison heard arguments from representatives of Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office, and from Tom DeVore, representing over 860 plaintiffs, saying he will issue a ruling by Friday.

Sources confirmed to Illinois Review that late last night, Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office attempted to delay the hearing by seeking substitution of assigned Judge Chad Miller. In response, Chief Judge Douglas Jarman reassigned the case to Judge Morrison, and the hearing proceeded as scheduled.

Earlier in the evening, sources also confirmed to Illinois Review that Raoul’s office asked for a one-week continuation, but that request was denied.

The hearing proceeded, ex parte (one side only), meaning a Judge can proceed without any representation from defendants. Ex parte is usually reserved for emergency purposes.

During the emergency hearing, representatives from the Attorney General’s office were present, attending on behalf of Gov. JB Pritzker, D, and Attorney General Raoul, D. However, the General Assembly and named defendants Speaker Chris Welch, D, and Senate President Don Harmon, D, were unrepresented at the hearing.

Former Republican nominee for Attorney General Thomas DeVore, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of over 860 plaintiffs, was also present at the hearing.

DeVore argued for roughly 25 minutes, while representatives from the Attorney General’s office spoke for more than 45 minutes.

DeVore’s lawsuit challenging the new gun ban in state court is just one of three filed so far this week.  Thomas Maag, famous for winning a settlement in a class action lawsuit about the Illinois State Police fee-stacking on FOID applications, filed suit in the Southern District of Federal Court.

And the Illinois State Rifle Association, backed by the Firearms Policy Coalition and the Second Amendment Foundation, also filed in the same federal court district.

And if that wasn’t enough work for ol’ Kwame Raoul, the Illinois Gun Rights Alliance will likely file their lawsuit next week or the week after in federal court as well.  The IGRA, a new group, includes the Aurora Sportsman’s Club, FFL-IL, Guns Save Life, the State Line Rifle Association, Gun Owners of America, and the Second Amendment Law Center / Chuck Michele.  We (I serve as the executive director of Guns Save Life, one of the founding member groups) just put out a press release announcing our group earlier this week.

Suffice it to say that the Governor thought this Draconian gun and magazine ban would make him look like an effective statesman capable of accomplishing the impossible.  He likely believe it would serve as a pillar in a possible presidential campaign announcement.

Instead this thing is morphing into an epic political embarrassment in real time.  Pritzker looks weak and inept as within days of signing the measure into law, Pritzker faced about 90 county sheriffs and/or state’s attorneys telling him publicly to pound sand on enforcing the new law.  And now his precious new law looks like it may get blocked by the courts.

Adding insult to injury, an inept Attorney General can’t even find attorneys to represent all of the named defendants in the first court hearing of many more to come.

Then again, this is the dim bulb AG who appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court when a county judge blocked the “No Cash Bail” law for 64 counties prior to the new year.  Not only did the local Supremes reject Raoul’s motion, but they expanded the order to all 102 counties.  That’s some mighty fine lawyering there, Mr. AG.

In the end, it looks like J.B. Pritzker does not look like a wise and capable statesman destined for higher office.  Instead, he looks like a feckless blow-hard surrounded by incompetence.

Illinois remains a screwed up state, with politicians blaming law-abiding gun owners for the crimes committed almost entirely by gang members who illegally acquired their firearms.  Why, the politicians even redirect attention from the gang violence on our streets by calling it “gun violence” instead.  And now Governor J.B. Pritzker’s Illinois State Police, under new ’emergency rulemaking,’ are revoking FOID (firearm owners identification) cards for the thinnest of reasons.

As for those who have their FOID cards revoked, they have lost their fundamental constitutional right to keep and bear arms.  The FOID Appeals Board is set up to hear those appeals, however the governor hasn’t nominated anyone for the state review board that’s supposed to hear those appeals.  Without members, there can be no quorum.  Without a quorum, there’s no business. There’s no board.

This summer, in order to cover for the failure of the FOID gun control scheme to prevent the Independence Day massacre in Highland Park, the Illinois State Police filed for emergency rulemaking to allow them to revoke FOID cards more easily. WREX had a story back in July about the change that explains it nicely.

SPRINGFIELD, Il. —The Illinois State Police (ISP), under the direction of Governor Pritzker, submitted an emergency rule change to the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office implementing broader use of clear and present danger reports that can bar applicants from receiving a Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card or revoke a current FOID card.

The rule change allows for the use and maintenance of historic clear and present danger information even if the subject was not actively seeking or holding a FOID card at the time a Clear and Present Danger report was made and allows for use of these reports in possible future evaluations. 

Since 2013, administrative rules have unnecessarily limited and complicated the ability of the Illinois State Police to consider Clear and Present Danger information over time. For example, the former administrative rule required a Clear and Present Danger to be “impending”, “imminent”, “substantial” or “significant.” Clear and Present Danger under state law however is more broadly defined requiring “physical or verbal behavior, such as violent, suicidal, or assaultive threats, actions, or other behavior…”

Clear and present danger reports are made by physicians, clinical psychologists, qualified examiners, school administrators, and law enforcement.

This emergency rule will now allow the Illinois State Police to consider a broader range of information by simply applying the statutory definition of Clear and Present Danger. These emergency rules also will clarify ISP’s authority to use and retain Clear and Present Danger reports to the fullest extent allowed by state and federal law.

So, “allowing” the ISP to “consider a broader range of information” has been aggressively used by J.B. Pritzker’s state cops to revoke a whole lot of people for stuff ten, twenty and even thirty-plus years ago.  Some might even say they’re abusing their newly created “authority.”  How, you ask?

How about the fact that a Decatur, IL police officer, recovering at home after being shot in the line of duty early this year, got one of those revocation letters.  Why?  Because she sought treatment for an eating disorder years ago while in college.

Thanks to the governor not naming a board to hear appeals from her, she and thousands of other people stripped of their gun rights without one bit of due process have little real process to reclaim those rights.  So they wait.

News of this has gotten out and some media outlets are picking up on this.

The Center Square was first to investigate after I mentioned this in a radio interview.  They then published this story.

(The Center Square) – There are no members appointed to the board that is set to field appeals from Illinoisans who have had their gun privileges revoked by the state.

Illinois law requires anyone who wants to buy or own guns or ammo to have a valid Firearm Owner’s Identification card issued by Illinois State Police. Gov. J.B. Pritzker said state police have been busy confiscating FOID cards from those the state determines can’t have one…

ISP said earlier this month they have conducted more than 200 FOID enforcement details with more than 1,000 individuals surrendering their FOID cards and weapons.

But John Boch, with the gun-rights group Guns Save Life, said while there’s a FOID appeals board in state statute, the governor has not appointed anyone to field challenges to revoked privileges.

“Governor Pritzker and his friends in the legislature that are leading our state have done a fine job basically taking people’s FOID cards away without any due process at all,” Boch told WMAY.

State law says an aggrieved party can appeal to the ISP director. Starting Jan. 1, 2023, they can appeal to the FOID Card Review Board. The board was created by state statute Jan. 1, 2022. But nobody has been appointed to the board. Pritzker didn’t say why he hasn’t appointed any board members when asked about the issue Thursday. 

The bottom line is gun owners in Illinois have good reason not to trust Gov. J.B. Pritzker, and under Pritzker’s leadership, they may not trust the Illinois State Police either.

Fortunately, thanks to the Bruen case coming down, I think we’re going to have a very satisfactory resolution to this mess long before we’re all eating tapioca pudding in a nursing home.