The Second Amendment protects the right to carry a firearm for self-defense while taking public transit, a federal judge has ruled.
On Friday, US District Judge Iain Johnston found a provision in Illinois’ Firearm Concealed Carry Act banning all forms of carrying a firearm on or near any public transportation facility is unconstitutional. He ruled the state failed to prove that its restriction aligned with the nation’s historical approach to firearms regulation.
“After an exhaustive review of the parties’ filings and the historical record, as required by Supreme Court precedent, the Court finds that Defendants failed to meet their burden to show an American tradition of firearm regulation at the time of the Founding that would allow Illinois to prohibit Plaintiffs—who hold concealed carry permits—from carrying concealed handguns for self-defense onto the CTA and Metra,” Judge Johnston wrote in Schoenthal v. Raoul.
Johnston’s ruling applies only to the four named plaintiffs in the case, so it does not immediately grant concealed carry permit holders writ large the ability to begin carrying on public transit. It could, however, set the stage for a later ruling striking the law down statewide.
It also comes as courts across the country are adjudicating challenges to location-based restrictions to the right to carry a firearm in public, which the Supreme Court formally recognized in 2022’s New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen. In the aftermath of that decision, states like New York, New Jersey, California, Maryland, Hawaii, and others began standing up new gun-carry regimes that severely restrict the places licensees can bring their firearms. Illinois’ “sensitive place” restriction pre-dates those adopted by other states, but nearly every single new public transit gun ban passed over the last two years mirrors it.
A group of Illinois licensees who said they were frequently forced to avoid public transportation due to the carry ban filed suit against the ban shortly after Bruen. They argued the provision violates the Second Amendment, according to the test laid out in that landmark case. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx (D.) attempted to defend the law by arguing the Bruen analysis did not necessarily apply to the public transit gun ban. Instead, she claimed that because the government funds public transit systems, the state is the de facto “proprietor” of those systems and can exclude whomever it chooses–much like private property owners.
Judge Johnston rejected the argument, calling it “breathtaking, jawdropping, and eyepopping.”
“Ms. Foxx’s position—that government’s powers over public property are equivalent to those of private owners of property—is untenable, and was rejected by the Supreme Court long ago,” he wrote.
Turning to the required Bruen analysis, Johnston found that the plaintiff’s proposed conduct–the licensed concealed carrying of handguns for self-defense on public transportation and associated facilities–fell within the plain text of the Second Amendment. Therefore, he wrote, the onus was on the state to cite analogous historical laws for its modern-day ban.
The state defendants pointed to the 1328 Statute of Northampton as well as later state “affray” statutes from Virginia and North Carolina that prohibited going armed in a way meant to terrify the public. They also pointed to three similar Reconstruction-era statutes from Texas, Missouri, and Tennessee as support for the notion that governments possessed a general ability to regulate firearms “in crowded public forums.”
Judge Johnston ruled those laws restricted firearms rights for “a wholly different reason” than Illinois’ modern public transportation ban.
“Even granting the existence of such a longstanding tradition, however, that doesn’t address Plaintiffs’ second response to these laws—that they aren’t appropriate analogues because why they burdened the right to armed self-defense is not sufficiently similar,” he wrote. “The why is different. A concealed arm doesn’t terrorize; it’s concealed. Consequently, these historical laws do not serve as an appropriate historical analogue.”
Gun-rights advocates cheered the decision.
“This is a significant victory for legally-armed Illinois residents who rely on public transit,” Alan Gottlieb, Founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, said in a statement.
He said he was particularly glad the government’s argument that it had as much a right to prohibit gun possession as private property owners failed to persuade the judge.
“It demonstrates how far government will reach in an attempt to justify its effort to restrict Second Amendment rights,” he said.
Drew Hill, a spokesperson for Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul (D.), told The Reload that state officials were still weighing their next steps in the case.
“We are reviewing the decision and will likely appeal,” Hill said.
