Caleb Barnett v. Kwame Raoul

What the court held

Illinois enacted the Protect Illinois Communities Act, criminalizing the manufacture, sale, and possession of designated assault weapons and large-capacity magazines with a grandfather clause for existing owners, and after a bench trial the district court held much of the Act unconstitutional and enjoined it in its entirety. The Seventh Circuit reversed, focusing on AR-15s and thirty-round rifle magazines and holding that restrictions on those items are consistent with the principles underlying the nation's tradition of firearm regulation, so the choice whether to adopt them belongs to elected representatives. A dissenting judge would have held that magazines are protected arms in common use, that no tradition supports capacity limits, and would have remanded for analysis of the rest of the Act.

Summarized from the court's opinion.

What this case is about

Illinois Protect Illinois Communities Act ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines

GunMapUSA summary of the issue, not a quotation from the court.

Key Dates

• 2023-11-03 — Decided

Sources

• CourtListener — retrieved 2026-08-08