Illinois ban on high-powered firearms blocked by federal judge downstate
Crawford County Sheriff William Rutan, at podium, introduces Illinois state Rep. - John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/TNS

CHICAGO — A federal judge in southern Illinois on Friday issued an injunction blocking enforcement of the state’s new ban on many higher-powered firearms and large-capacity ammunition magazines, just days after a counterpart in Chicago ruled the opposite way. The ruling came in a case that consolidated lawsuits brought by a variety of groups, including the Illinois State Rifle Association, against the law passed in the Democratic-controlled General Assembly and signed by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker in January in response to the deadly mass shooting at last year’s Fourth of July parade in nor...