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FIRST ON FOX:The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) filed a lawsuit against Illinois officials Tuesday over the state's Firearm Owners Identification Act, also known as theFOID Card Act, a state law that requires Illinois residents to apply for. carry an identification card at all times in order to possess any firearm or ammunition.
The civil complaint, which Fox News Digital obtained exclusively, challenges the law as unconstitutional, arguing it "entirely depriveseveryoneof the right to keep. bear arms – including the basic right to possess a firearm for self-defense in the home – unless and until they seek and receive the State's permission."
NCLA is challenging the law's constitutionality. contending that FOID violates both theSecond Amendmentand the Fourteenth Amendment, particularly the latter amendment's Due Process Clause.
NCLAis suing Illinois State Police Director Brendan F. Kelly, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul. Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke, seeking injunctive relief on behalf of three plaintiffs.
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Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly speaks before Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill restricting the sale. possession of unserialized firearms, also known as ghost guns.(Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Two of the plaintiffs, Christopher Laurent. Kim Dalton, would like toobtain firearmsfor self-defense but haven't done so because they "refuse to submit to the state's unconstitutional procedure, and are unwilling to subject themselves to criminal prosecution by violating the law," the complaint reads.
The other, Justin Tucker, did obtain a FOID card. doesn't want to have to continue to renew it or to carry it with him at all times, which state law requires if one wants to retain their right to bear arms in Illinois.
"The police can approach you. demand you ‘show your papers’ to prove you're allowed to exercise this right, otherwise, you are committing a crime," NCLA Senior Litigation Counsel Jacob Huebert, the lead attorney on the lawsuit, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview.
"Some people may have an urgent need to obtain afirearm for self-defensein their home because of a threat they face. yet they absolutely cannot do that. They have to file the application, go through the process,. wait as long as the state wants to take," Huebert explained.
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"At every step of the way. the burden of proof is on the citizen to be allowed to exercise their rights. You go through the first round,. if they deny you, you can do an internal appeal within the Illinois State Police, which has a review board. If you lose at all those stages, you can go to court,. even then, the burden of proof remains on you to show that you're entitled to exercise your Second Amendment rights," he continued.
An assortment of semiautomatic rifles are on display for sale at R Guns on April 29. 2023, in Carpentersville, Illinois.(John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
"In our view, that is the exact opposite of howconstitutional rightsare supposed to work. A right means. you are presumed allowed to do something unless the government has a sufficiently good reason to stop you. Normally, if the government wants to disarm a particular person, they have to go to court, get a restraining order,. present evidence showing why that person shouldn't be allowed to have a gun. But in Illinois, everybody is treated as guilty until they prove themselves innocent," he told Fox News Digital.
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Illinois enacted the FOID law in 1967,. the constitutional legitimacy of the statute has been challenged multiple times in the decades since. In the 2020 decision People v. Vivian Brown, an Illinois state trial court ruled the law unconstitutional. However, state trial court decisions apply only to individual plaintiffs and don't serve as precedent.
A customer inspects a 9mm handgun at Rink's Gun. Sport in the Chicago suburb of Lockport, Illinois, on June 26, 2008.(REUTERS/Frank Polich/Files)
By filing its suit in federal district court inChicago. NCLA is seeking to force the court to set a precedent that would in effect nullify the law, Huebert explained.
"Once the federal courts weigh in, that will be the definitive law," he told Fox News Digital. "If a federal court orders the Illinois State Police, the Illinois Attorney General,. the Cook County State's Attorney not to enforce this law anymore, then they can no longer enforce it," Huebert said.
Illinois ranks as the state with the second-strongest gun laws on the books behind California. according to a2026 rankingcomposed by Everytown For Gun Safety. Despite the stringency. however, Illinois ranks 13th in the nation in gun homicides, averaging 8.2 deaths per 100,000 residents on an age-adjusted basis, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Fox News Digital contacted the Illinois State Police, the Illinois Attorney General's Office. the Cook County State's Attorney's Office for comment on the lawsuit.
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