Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday said he’s working to ensure Illinois has help from top experts to defend its assault weapons ban, after the U.S. Supreme Court indicated this week it would hear arguments over similar bans in Cook County and in Connecticut.

“I think they will be attacking all of the assault weapons bans with this case that they’re taking up,” Pritzker said, adding his office is “assisting the attorney general in getting outside advisers and counsel for the case before the Supreme Court and making sure that we have all of our ducks in a row to protect the rights of the people of this state that are protected by the assault weapons ban.”

The conservative-majority Supreme Court’s decision to take up the bans could be a precursor to a sweeping ruling on the constitutional right to own such firearms. The case involving the Cook County ban is separate from another lawsuit before the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago challenging the constitutionality of Illinois’ statewide ban on a long list of semiautomatic rifles, shotguns and pistols and high-capacity ammunition magazines, but a ruling on the county’s ban could directly shape the state case.

Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office had no immediate comment Thursday.

While the attorney general’s office “is going to lead the effort on our behalf,” along with Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke, Pritzker said his office would be involved.

“We want to make sure we’ve got the best experts in the country that are helping — we’ve got some of them here in Illinois — helping to defend the law, because it’s the right thing,” Pritzker said. “We have banned assault weapons across the state of Illinois for a reason. … They don’t need a weapon that can fire that many bullets in a single second.”

The state law, which bans most of the same weapons as the Cook County ordinance, has so far withstood legal challenges. But two years ago, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the high court should review the Illinois law, expressing deep reservations about its constitutionality.

The 7th Circuit has not ruled definitively on the state case, which is being heard on appeal after a federal district judge in southern Illinois, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, found the state gun ban unconstitutional.

Pritzker’s comments on the ban Thursday came shortly before the fourth anniversary of the mass shooting at a Highland Park Independence Day parade that killed seven people and wounded dozens more. The governor signed the state assault weapons ban in early 2023 as one of the first acts of his second term.

Pritzker spoke to reporters after joining advocates and lawmakers at a North Side cannabis dispensary Thursday to mark the signing of a sweeping new law regulating intoxicating hemp and tweaking the state’s rules on cannabis, which has been legally sold to recreational users in Illinois since 2020. Pritzker and other critics have said largely unregulated products containing intoxicating hemp pose a danger to children.

Specifically, the measure will ban the sale of intoxicating hemp products without a license and to people under 21 years old. On the licensed cannabis side, it will increase the amount of cannabis or THC that consumers may possess, allow later dispensary hours, allow licensed dispensaries to sell medical cannabis, and allow drive-thru cannabis service, among other changes.

The ban on sales of intoxicating hemp products to people younger than 21 was among the provisions of the new law that took effect immediately when Pritzker signed the measure June 12, while other provisions, including the ban on selling intoxicating hemp without a license, take effect in November.

“This is probably the biggest bill signing around cannabis that we’ve had since the very beginning,” Pritzker said.

Many unlicensed hemp business owners opposed the ban on intoxicating hemp sales outside of licensed shops.

Jim Champion, vice chair of the Medical Cannabis Advisory Board, celebrated the bill signing at the news conference Thursday but pushed for more, including creating a delivery service for people who can’t go to dispensaries.

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