Court Opinion

ID: 9745732
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 13:29:37.500016+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:04.390015
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE STEIGMANN, specially concurring: The legislature has provided in section 24 — 1(a)(4) of the Code that it is unlawful for a person to carry or possess a pistol in any vehicle, except under certain conditions. 720 ILCS 5/24 — 1(a)(4) (West 2000). Because defendant has not challenged the authority of the legislature to so provide, this court’s only role in this case is to conscientiously carry out the legislature’s intention to the best of our ability. As we do so, we are constrained by the deference due to the policy-making body of the State of Illinois — namely, the General Assembly. The Supreme Court of Illinois recently discussed this deference, as follows: “ ‘ “The only legitimate function of the courts is to declare and enforce the law as enacted by the legislature, to interpret the language used by the legislature where it requires interpretation, and not to annex new provisions or substitute different ones, or read into a statute exceptions, limitations, or conditions which depart from its plain meaning.” ’ ” People ex rel. Department of Professional Regulation v. Manos, 202 Ill. 2d 563, 568-69 (2002), quoting Bronson v. Washington National Insurance Co., 59 Ill. App. 2d 253, 261-62, 207 N.E.2d 172, 176 (1965), quoting Belfield v. Coop, 8 Ill. 2d 293, 307, 134 N.E.2d 249, 256 (1956). With the foregoing limitation in mind, I agree with the majority that the legislature, when it set forth the following exemptions to the general prohibition on carrying a pistol in a vehicle — that is, when an unloaded pistol is “enclosed in a case, firearm carrying box, shipping box, or other container” — did not intend to include a vehicle’s glove compartment. 720 ILCS 5/24 — l(a)(4)(iii) (West 2000). To hold otherwise would be to distort the clear meaning of that legislative exemption.