[JURIST] The US District Court in the Northern District of Illinois on Monday ordered the City of Chicago [official websites] to reimburse the National Rifle Association (NRA) [advocacy website] for the $940,000 spent on legal fees challenging gun ordinances. Chicago’s ban on the sale and transfer of firearms was overturned [JURIST report] in January after the NRA brought claims that the ban was unconstitutional. This marks the second time [AP report] the city has been ordered to pay legal fees for a suit brought by the NRA.
Second Amendment rights are a hotly contested [JURIST op-ed] political issue in the US. Last month a judge for the US District Court for the District of Colorado upheld two state statutes [JURIST report] that expanded mandatory background checks and banned high capacity magazines. Also in June the US Supreme Court ruled that the government can enforce a ban [JURIST report] on purchasing a gun for someone else, even if that other person is lawfully allowed to have a gun. In April a trial judge for the Supreme Court of New York dismissed a lawsuit [JURIST report] challenging the state’s strict gun laws. In February the Supreme Court denied review [JURIST report] of three gun rights cases without comment.