Vol. V No. 48 Amazon Fresh to open in 2022, PAGE 5
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Democrats deny racial gerrymandering in maps
Courtesy Loyola University Chicago Public Health/Facebook
State court rules on pair of gun cases
By PETER HANCOCK Capitol News Illinois
See GERRYMANDERING on page 8
No injuries in Westchester fire, PAGE 4
Young members of Maywood Fine Arts, in collaboration with Loyola’s School of Communication, produced a public service announcement for the COVID Equity Response Collaborative: Loyola called “Why did you get vaccinated?” See more photos on page 2.
Court documents set the stage for oral arguments starting Dec. 7
SPRINGFIELD – Lawyers for the General Assembly’s Democratic leaders filed documents in federal court on Nov. 24, denying that newly drawn state legislative district maps amount to racial gerrymandering, instead accusing the plaintiffs in the three lawsuits of trying to use race to redraw districts for their own purposes. The recent filings are the Democrats’ response to proposed changes in the district maps submitted last week by Republican leaders, a Latino advocacy group in Chicago and Black civil rights groups in the Metro East region.
DECEMBER 1, 2021
Assault weapons ban upheld while man granted gun rights restoration By JERRY NOWICKI Capitol News Illinois
SPRINGFIELD – On Nov. 18, the Illinois Supreme Court upheld a Village of Deerfield assault weapons ban and restored a Putnam County man’s right to a Firearm Owners Identification card over the objections of the Illinois State Police.
The decision in the Deerfield case was split 3-3, with Justice Michael Burke abstaining from the vote, meaning an appellate court’s ruling that allowed the ban was upheld as the final decision. Burke was part of the 2nd District Court of Appeals which heard the case previously. The case centered around a narrow window written into a state’s amendment to the FOID Act in 2013, which allowed home rule municipalities to adopt stricter gun laws if they passed an ordinance within 10 days of the law’s effective date, July 9, 2013. Deerfield did so within the law’s parameters, but the court was asked to decide whether the village’s 2018 amendment to
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its ordinance that banned civilian use of assault weapons and large capacity magazines was an extension of the 2013 action or a new law altogether. In 2019, a Lake County judge ruled in favor of gun rights groups and Deerfield resident Daniel Easterday, who sued to block the ordinance and claimed it was in violation of the state’s FOID and concealed carry laws. But the 2nd District Appellate Court later overturned that decision, ruling that the 2013 FOID amendment created “a hybrid balance of regulatory power between the See GUN CASES on page 7
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