by In the judicial equivalent of a Friday night document dump by the Justice Department, Judge Sue E. Myersclough released her opinion in Moore v. Madigan. This case was the challenge by the Second Amendment Foundation and Illinois Carry to the State of Illinois’ ban on carry outside the home. It was brought in U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois in Springfield.
Judge Myersclough denied the plaintiffs’ Motion for a Preliminary and/or Permanent Injunction and granted the defendant’s Motion to Dismiss.
Quickly summarizing her findings, Judge Myersclough found the Illinois “Unlawful Use of Weapons” and “Aggravated Unlawful Use of a Weapon” statutes do not violate the Second Amendment. She goes on to say that the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit have only recognized “a Second Amendment core individual right to bear arms inside the home.” Myersclough then says that even if the laws violated the Second Amendment, the statutes would survive constitutional scrutiny. Based on this, she didn’t think the plaintiffs’ could show a likelihood of success on the merits and therefore dismissed the case.
A Notice of Appeal to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals was filed within an hour of Judge Myersclough’s decision in this case.
I am halfway through my reading of the decision and will have more after I have had time to digest it. One thing I am looking for in her decision is an indication of how she will rule in another Second Amendment case – Mishaga v. Monken – that is before her presently.
As I wrote in a post last year regarding Judge Myersclough and the Mishaga case, she was nominated by President Obama. She had been asked whether Heller and McDonald limited handgun possession to the home and she replied that the Supreme Court left that for future evaluations. I guess we know now where she stands on that.
Can't tell whether you're kidding, but the judge's name is "Myerscough," as in "What killed old man Myer last winter?"
"Nobody's sure . . . for now, we just call it Myerscough."
From the reasoning I've seen so far in Moore v. Madigan, it looks clear to me that Judge Myerscough will toe the Illinois line on gun rights and will resort to completely uncritical copy-and-paste levels of quotation of extremely weak sources to do so. She actually cites the VPC.
I very much doubt that Judge Myerscough ever expected to rule on a high-profile 2nd Amendment case when she decided to seek a place on the bench, much less two and counting.