shallit@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP (Jeff Shallit) (01/06/85)
My previous posting discussed the US Supreme Court's decision of October 3, 1983. That article, a copy of a Chicago Tribune article, referred to the one challenge left to the Morton Grove law; namely, the Illinois State Supreme Court. Here is a short description of what transpired in October 1984. "In October, the Illinois State Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Morton Grove's handgun ordinance, setting to rest any further legal challenges to the law. The state Court ruled 4-3 that Morton Grove's ordinance does not violate principles of the Illinois State Constitution. "In 1983, the U. S. Supreme Court refused to hear an NRA challenge to the law under the Second Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, upholding a Court of Appeals ruling which stated, ``... possession of handguns by individuals is not part of the right to keep and bear arms...''. "The state Supreme Court was the final battleground for NRA leaders seeking to overturn the law. With all federal and state constitutional questions settled, Morton Grove's pioneering handgun law remains in effect." -- from Washington Report, V. 10, No. 3 (December, 1984). Kleinpaste has previously suggested something like "The US Supreme Court refused to hear the case...partly at the request of the NRA." It is a fabrication to suggest that the NRA requested that the UCSC NOT rule on the case. In fact, the NRA filed petitions with the Supreme Court to OVERTURN the ruling of the Seventh Circuit Court. In order for the Supreme Court to have "heard" the case, four justices had to decide that the matter was sufficiently important, or that the lower court erred in their decisions. Jeff Shallit University of Chicago