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Chicago to be next battleground over ban
Friday, June 27, 2008 | No comments posted.
CHICAGO (AP) — As news spread of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the handgun ban in Washington, D.C., one thing was clear in Chicago: The city’s own ban now faces a challenge as serious as any in its 26-year history.
From a visibly angry Mayor Richard Daley to a federal lawsuit filed within hours that challenges Chicago’s ban as unconstitutional, there was no mistaking that the high court’s opinion Thursday puts the city’s law squarely in the middle of a long legal fight.
While swift, the lawsuit wasn’t a surprise given that Justice Stephen Breyer, in his dissenting opinion, noted “Chicago has a law very similar to the District’s.”
“In the sense the Supreme Court has found this is an individual right to bear arms, we recognize (the ruling) is a significant threat,” said Jennifer Hoyle, spokeswoman for the city’s law department. “It gives people an opening to challenge the ordinance in a way it hasn’t been challenged in many years.”
Hoyle said the high court’s ruling that Americans can keep guns at home for self-defense does not invalidate Chicago’s law, and attorneys are confident they can successfully fight any challenge to the 1982 ordinance that makes it illegal to possess or sell handguns in the city.
From a visibly angry Mayor Richard Daley to a federal lawsuit filed within hours that challenges Chicago’s ban as unconstitutional, there was no mistaking that the high court’s opinion Thursday puts the city’s law squarely in the middle of a long legal fight.
While swift, the lawsuit wasn’t a surprise given that Justice Stephen Breyer, in his dissenting opinion, noted “Chicago has a law very similar to the District’s.”
“In the sense the Supreme Court has found this is an individual right to bear arms, we recognize (the ruling) is a significant threat,” said Jennifer Hoyle, spokeswoman for the city’s law department. “It gives people an opening to challenge the ordinance in a way it hasn’t been challenged in many years.”
Hoyle said the high court’s ruling that Americans can keep guns at home for self-defense does not invalidate Chicago’s law, and attorneys are confident they can successfully fight any challenge to the 1982 ordinance that makes it illegal to possess or sell handguns in the city.
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