ILLINOIS State Congress Passes Bill to Confiscate Legal Guns from All 18-20-Year-Olds. NRA to sue?

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ILLINOIS State Congress Passes Bill to Confiscate Legal Guns from All 18-20-Year-Olds. NRA to sue? This could be affected by the Ex Post Facto clauses in Article 1 of the Constitution

 

The U.S. Constitution: Art 1, § 9 This prohibits Congress from passing any laws which apply ex post facto. Art. 1 § 10. This prohibits the states from passing any laws which apply ex post facto. The Democrats in Illinois have passed a law making people criminals after the fact.

The law may be prohibited by the "EX POST FACTO"meaning "from a thing done afterward." At a minimum, ex post facto prohibits legislatures from passing laws which retroactively criminalize behavior. The retroactive criminalization of a legal act could violate the Beazell standard(Beazell v. Ohio, 269 U.S. 167 (1925).

 

Ex post facto is most typically used to refer to a criminal statute that punishes actions retroactively, thereby criminalizing conduct that was legal when originally performed. Two clauses in the United States Constitution prohibit ex post facto laws: Article 1 sections 9 and 10.

 

The original Constitution was concerned chiefly with setting up the government, reciting its powers and insuring its proper functioning by imposing necessary restraints upon the states. The ex post facto clauses, in which may be included the prohibitions against bills of attainder, are restraints upon legislative excesses. The prohibitive law restricting anyone under 21 from owning a firearm, may be construed as Legislative emotional excess in response to an incident .

 

Therefore, it is my opinion that criminalizing instead of grandfathering the possession of a formally legal item for the age group is the definition of "EX POST FACTO" and the lawsuits should also contain that concept in their briefs to the court. IMHO

 

For more information and insights on ex post facto and what the founders thought about it, see this University of Chicago Law Review article, this Berkley Law Review article, and this University of North Carolina Law Review article. The culmination of legal oipnions.