Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge signed an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court against an Illinois city ordinance that banned "assault weapons," which it defined as including most rifles except for those that were permanently inoperable or designed for Olympic target-shooting events.
Rutledge said in a news release Thursday that the brief was filed Aug. 28 and 24 state attorneys general signed on. The case, Friedman v. Highland Park, was filed in 2013 and sought to invalidate the ban.
In May, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the ban to stand.
The "friend of the court" brief ("amicus" is Latin for "friend") asks the Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court ruling and to invalidate the ban.
"The Seventh Circuit decision threatens the Second Amendment rights of Arkansans and all Americans' freedoms by further opening the door for a potential federal ban on these types of firearms," Rutledge said in a statement.
Metro on 09/06/2015