Judge Lindsay Jenkins
Northern Illinois U.S. District Court
Lindsay Carole Jenkins was born in 1977 in Cleveland, Ohio. She earned an undergraduate degree from Miami University and received her Juris Doctor from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law of Cleveland State University. She clerked at the Northern Ohio U.S. District Court.
She was an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois, then entered private practice. She was nominated by President Joe Biden to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Her nomination was not acted on and returned to the president who resubmitted it. After a cloture vote, she was confirmed by the Senate. She received her judicial commission in February 2023.
In the News…
Federal District Judge Lindsay Jenkins declined to block the enforcement of the strict assault weapons ban in Illinois. She denied a gun owner’s argument that the law was unconstitutional.
Judge Jenkins said the state has a “prevailing interest” in protecting the public from “dangerous weapons” that outweighs any Second Amendment protection of the right to keep and bear arms. She said the Illinois gun control laws are consistent with historical tradition of firearm regulations in the U.S.
In the judge’s 31-page opinion, she wrote, “The challenged restrictions on semiautomatic weapons and large-capacity magazines… are inconsistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation, namely the history and tradition of regulating particularly ‘dangerous weapons.’”
The state “responded to ‘dramatic technological changes’ and ‘unprecedented societal concerns’ of increasing mass shootings by regulating the sale of weapons and magazines used to perpetrate them,” she wrote.
“This is well in line with earlier laws regulating carry and progressing to restrictions on sale and possession, in and out the home,” the judge found.
Attorneys said the case will be appealed to the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
Contact this Leader…
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The Honorable Lindsay Jenkins
Northern Illinois U.S. District Court
Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse
219 South Dearborn Street
Chicago, IL 60604
