State’s Attorney Burke Announces Elite Legal Team to Defend Cook County Assault Weapons Ban Before U.S. Supreme Court

CHICAGO — Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen Burke today announced the legal team that will defend Cook County’s assault weapons ban before the U.S. Supreme Court, bringing together leading Supreme Court litigators, constitutional law experts, experienced government attorneys and gun-safety advocates. The outcome of the case, Viramontes v. Cook County, will determine the future of commonsense gun-safety regulations across the country. 

“We’re bringing every resource to bear and will aggressively defend Cook County’s assault weapons ban. This premier team has been hard at work to ensure we present the strongest argument possible because lives are at stake. Cook County’s longstanding ban is lawful and necessary to protect our communities. Assault weapons are designed to inflict the maximum amount of carnage in the least amount of time, and they have no place in our communities,” said State’s Attorney Burke.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in Viramontes v. Cook County on December 2, 2026. The issue before the court is whether the Cook County’s assault weapons ordinance is constitutional. The ban was originally enacted in 1993 and amended in 2013 to honor Blair Holt, a teenager who lost his life to gun violence while heroically shielding friends from gunfire that erupted on a CTA bus.

Viramontes was consolidated with Grant v. Higgins, a challenge to an assault weapons ban passed in Connecticut following the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and the Supreme Court will rule on the cases together. 

SA Burke serves as the attorney of record for Cook County. She is supported by Cook County Assistant State’s Attorneys Yvette Loizon, Anastasia Harper, Jessica Scheller, and Prathima Yeddanapudi.

Cook County’s legal team also draws on attorneys and legal scholars with extensive experience before the nation’s highest court, including Jeff Fisher, co-director of Stanford Law School’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic. 

The Cook County team is also working closely with Elizabeth Prelogar, 48th Solicitor General of the United States and partner at Cooley’s Supreme Court and appellate practice group, who is counsel for Connecticut, as well as civil and appellate attorneys from the Illinois Attorney General's Office and the Connecticut Attorney General’s Office.

In addition, the CCSAO is collaborating with Everytown for Gun Safety, Brady United: Against Gun Violence and GIFFORDS to receive their support and insight. 

“Connecticut’s assault weapons ban is lawful, lifesaving, and broadly supported, and our team is prepared to win this fight. Connecticut will be represented by the former Solicitor General of the United States, Elizabeth Prelogar, who successfully defended our nation’s domestic violence gun laws in Rahimi before the Supreme Court. The gun lobby flooded courts in states across the country to deliver an assault weapons case to the Supreme Court. We are heading into court on December 2 armed with the facts, the law, and a mandate from Connecticut families who overwhelmingly want these weapons of war away from our kids and off our streets,” said Connecticut Attorney General William Tong. 

The CCSAO has successfully defended Cook County’s assault weapons ban in lower federal courts. Most recently, in June 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the constitutional challenge to the County’s ordinance.

Cook County’s brief in Viramontes is due Oct. 21, 2026. 

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