DOJ’s Harmeet Dhillon to Argue Against Illinois Gun Control in Court

Far too many states in this country barely even pay lip service to the Second Amendment, if they bother to acknowledge it at all. One of those states is Illinois, which was bad enough, but has since gone off the deep end and tried to start challenging California of the title of most anti-gun state in the nation.

Which takes some work, let me tell ya.

But they’ve been doing it, but not without challenge. In fact, pretty much everything has been challenged, but now the gun rights groups are getting a little help for a change, and that help is historic.

For the first time, perhaps in history, the United States Department of Justice has stepped directly into a Second Amendment case challenging an Illinois gun ban – sending shockwaves through Springfield and marking a historic turning point in the fight for constitutional rights.

Court records confirm that Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, the DOJ’s top civil rights official under President Donald Trump, has been granted time to personally argue before the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.

On September 22, 2025, the ISRA will stand before the court in Harrel et al. v. Raoul et al., and this time, they won’t be standing alone. The federal government itself is joining the battle.

This move is unprecedented. In June, the U.S. Justice Department has filed an amicus brief with the court siding with ISRA and fellow plaintiffs, declaring that Illinois’ so-called “assault weapons ban” tramples the Second Amendment. The brief makes it clear: bans on commonly owned firearms are unconstitutional, a position ISRA has steadfastly maintained since the moment Gov. JB Pritzker and Democrat lawmakers rammed through this law several years ago.

“This historic and unprecedented move is welcomed news,” said ISRA Executive Director Richard Pearson. “The ISRA remains on the front lines and continues to stand up to Gov. Pritzker and anti-gun legislators in Springfield on behalf of 2.5 million law-abiding, responsible firearms owners in Illinois – and this latest development proves it.”

Do you want to know the worst part of this? That this is historic. That this is apparently the first time the DOJ–which has long jumped in on cases they felt involved civil rights–has stepped in on a gun control case anywhere in the country in order to uphold the Second Amendment.

I’m not holding Dhillon responsible because she’s fairly new to the job. She’s stepping in and doing what legions of her predecessors should have been doing. 

They just didn’t.

Instead, we typically get the DOJ working against the Second Amendment, and that’s still happening as well, unfortunately.

The truth of the matter is that there’s nothing in the Second Amendment remotely suggestive of an assault weapon ban being permissible. That whole “well regulated militia” makes it clear that there’s a military purpose for the right to keep and bear arms, and the whole “shall not be infringed” is pretty clear as well.

There’s no constitutional justification, and it’s about time we had some help from the Department of Justice in defending our rights. We should have had it for the last few decades at least, but we haven’t.

And the sad thing is that, depending on who comes after Trump, we likely won’t see it again for a good long while if things go back to how they were.

So, for now, let’s enjoy what we’re getting and keep it up while we can.

Editor’s Note: President Trump and his Department of Justice are, for the most part, doing everything they can to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.

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