SCOTUS Justice Barrett Gives Illinois City Until Monday to Respond to Challenge to ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban

On Tuesday afternoon, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett gave the city of Naperville in Illinois until Monday to respond to a challenge levied against its “assault weapons” ban, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Robert Bevis, owner of Law Weapons & Supply, claims Naperville is destroying his business and that it is unconstitutional.

Breitbart News reported that Bevis filed an emergency application with Justice Barrett, asking the court to intervene and issue an injunction against two separate “assault weapons” bans in Illinois pending appellate review.

One of the bans is in Naperville and the other is the state-level ban contained in the Protect Illinois Communities Act (PICA).

The issue in the case is:

Can the government ban the sale, purchase, and possession of certain semi-automatic firearms and firearm magazines tens of millions of which are possessed by law-abiding American for lawful purposes when there is no analogous historical ban as required in D.C. v. Heller (2008)…and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022).

In addition to constitutional concerns, the emergency application also pointed out, “Moreover, Plaintiffs are applying for emergency relief because they are suffering much more than tangible harm to constitutional rights. Respondents are literally destroying Mr. Bevis’s livelihood, because the challenged laws are forcing Law Weapons, Inc., out of business.”

The application is Bevis v. Naperville and the State of Illinois, No. 22A948, in the Supreme Court of the United States.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. AWR Hawkins holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.