Multiple lawsuits filed against new assault weapons ban in Illinois

CHICAGO (CBS)-- A new federal lawsuit is the latest to challenge Illinois' week-old ban on assault weapons.

The Illinois State Rifle Association calls the law unconstitutional, and claims it criminalizes an "important means of self-defense."

At least two other challenges are pending in county courts downstate.

Governor JB Pritzker signed the statewide ban last week. The law bans the purchase, sale, and delivery of assault style rifles in Illinois, and requires people who already own them to register them with Illinois State Police.   

Pritzker, while attending the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, said Wednesday that he's confident state and federal courts will uphold the ban.

"The fact is it's in existence, this assault weapons ban, in eight other states. We're simply the ninth," he said. "We're simply copying, frankly, what's been done in other states. In fact, ours is perhaps one of the most stringent, but fits within the confines of what is constitutional and acceptable. Lots of constitutional scholars have said that about our law."

An Effingham County judge heard arguments Wednesday on a restraining order requested by a group of plaintiffs suing to block the assault weapons ban.

Attorney Thomas DeVore, a former Republican candidate for Illinois Attorney General, said he is representing hundreds of plaintiffs from 87 counties in that lawsuit, which argues the ban violates the equal protection clause of the constitution, and the legislative process used to pass the ban was flawed.

Judge Joshua Morrison said he plans to rule by Friday evening on DeVore's request for a restraining order to block enforcement of the law while legal challenges to the ban are pending.

Another lawsuit was filed in Crawford County last Friday.

Some Illinois sheriffs in counties like McHenry, Kankakee and DuPage have already said they will not enforce the ban.