A federal appeals court just told millions of Americans their constitutional rights are subject to a veto by elected officials — and two of the three judges in the majority were appointed by Republicans. The Seventh Circuit upheld Illinois' ban on AR-15 rifles and standard-capacity magazines Thursday, ruling that the Second Amendment doesn't protect firearms that the government finds too dangerous for civilian hands.

This matters because if the most popular rifle in America can be banned, nothing is safe. The AR-15 is the modern musket — owned by over 20 million Americans for self-defense, sport, and yes, as a check on tyranny. The Founders didn't say "shall not be infringed, except when a billionaire governor with presidential ambitions decides otherwise."

Judge Amy St. Eve, appointed by President Donald Trump in 2018, wrote the majority opinion joined by Judge Frank Easterbrook, a Ronald Reagan appointee. They found that Illinois' ban is "consistent with the principles that underpin our Nation's tradition of firearm regulation." Only Chief Judge Michael Brennan, also a Trump appointee, dissented, writing that "because the people have overwhelmingly chosen the AR-15 rifle and its magazine as their weapon of choice, they are protected by the Second Amendment."

So let's be clear about the bipartisan failure here. Republican presidents put two of the three judges on this panel, and two of the three still ruled against the Constitution. The lower court judge who got it right — Stephen McGlynn, another Trump appointee — was overturned by his own party's picks. McGlynn asked the right question in his 168-page ruling: "Who comes to our aid in times of peril? Sometimes, it is the police or first responders; other times... sometimes, it is no one."

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat who the Chicago Sun-Times notes hasn't ruled out a 2028 presidential run, signed the Protect Illinois Communities Act in 2023. He called the ruling "a victory in the fight to end gun violence." Attorney General Kwame Raoul declared that "these weapons of war have no place in our communities." Every semi-automatic is a "weapon of war" if you stretch the definition far enough — which is the point.

The majority leaned on a correlation between "assault weapons" and mass shooting severity, but correlation isn't constitutional permission to ban what the people have chosen to defend themselves. County sheriffs across Illinois refused to enforce this law from the start, calling it what it is: unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court will have the final say. It has already agreed to hear a challenge to Cook County's similar ban. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon traveled to Chicago to argue that the AR-15 is "clearly" protected by the Second Amendment — a rare intervention that shows even the Justice Department sees the problem.

The question now is whether five justices will enforce their own Bruen standard, or whether the right to keep and bear arms means whatever a panel of robed lawyers decides it means on any given Thursday.