Concealed Carry Act – 2nd Amendment Violation – Jurisdiction

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Michael White, et al., v. Illinois State Police, et al.,

Case No.: 20-2842

Officials: BRENNAN, SCUDDER, and ST. EVE, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Concealed Carry Act – 2^nd Amendment Violation – Jurisdiction

Illinois’s Firearm Concealed Carry Act creates a scheme for licensing individuals to carry concealed firearms in public. Michael White applied for a concealed carry license on two occasions. Both times the State denied his application. White unsuccessfully appealed the first denial in Illinois state court. Following the second denial, White and the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) filed this lawsuit in federal court challenging the constitutionality of the Concealed Carry Act. The defendants—state entities and officials tasked with enforcing the Act—moved to dismiss the lawsuit. The district court granted the motion with prejudice, and the plaintiffs now appeal.

We affirm. ISRA lacks Article III standing, so the district court correctly dismissed its claims. And White’s facial challenges to the Concealed Carry Act are precluded by the judgment in his state court lawsuit challenging the denial of his first application. With these claims out of the way, our review on the merits is narrow. We ask only whether the Concealed Carry Act violates the Second Amendment as applied to the State’s denial of White’s second application. We hold that it does not. White has two criminal convictions—including one for unlawful use of a firearm—and multiple gun-related arrests. Illinois’s individualized determination that White’s criminal history renders him too dangerous to carry a concealed firearm in public survives intermediate scrutiny.

Though we affirm, we modify the judgment to reflect that ISRA’s claims are dismissed without prejudice. The district court dismissed ISRA’s claims for lack of jurisdiction, and a dismissal for lack of jurisdiction cannot be with prejudice.

Affirmed

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Derek A Hawkins is Corporate Counsel, at Salesforce.