Supreme Court Lets Illinois Transit Ban Stand

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a challenge to Illinois' ban on concealed carry holders bringing firearms aboard public transit, leaving the decade-old prohibition intact.

State of play: Illinois has banned firearms on buses and trains since 2013, when it became the last state in the country to authorize concealed carry at all. Four permit holders sued in 2022, arguing the ban left them defenseless while commuting on the CTA and Metra.

Catch up quick:

• August 2024: A federal judge in Rockford sided with the plaintiffs, citing the Bruen standard — restrictions must mirror 18th-century historical analogues
• September 2024: The Seventh Circuit reversed that ruling, writing the law "is comfortably situated in a centuries-old practice of limiting firearms in sensitive and crowded, confined places"
• April 7, 2025: SCOTUS declined to take the case, letting the Seventh Circuit decision stand

The legal question: Bruen was supposed to be the mechanism that dismantled laws like this one. The district court read it that way — no historical analogue, no ban. The Seventh Circuit read it differently, finding that crowded public spaces have historically been treated as sensitive locations. SCOTUS choosing not to weigh in doesn't resolve that interpretive split; it just leaves Illinois gun owners holding the short end of it.

"Law-abiding public transportation riders in Illinois are less safe as a result of the law." — David G. Sigale, attorney for the plaintiffs

Between the lines: A cert denial isn't a ruling on the merits. The Court didn't say Illinois was right — it just didn't say anything. That matters because circuit splits on Bruen's application are multiplying, and eventually the Court will have to clarify what "sensitive places" actually means. This case just isn't the vehicle they wanted.

What Idaho owners should know: Idaho has no equivalent restriction — you can carry on public transit here under state law, and there's no pending legislative push to change that. But watch how the "sensitive places" doctrine develops federally. If courts keep finding that crowded public spaces qualify as historically sensitive, that reasoning doesn't stay contained to Chicago.

What to watch: The Illinois State Rifle Association has already signaled it will keep pushing — legislatively and in future litigation. The broader Bruen "sensitive places" question is still unsettled across circuits, and the right case could bring SCOTUS back to it.