A Federal Appeals Court panel ruled unanimously for an Ameren employee (Power company in IL), who was dismissed for having a handgun in his private vehicle. The court ruled that...
The 13-page opinion by U.S. Judge Michael Stephen Kanne for the unanimous panel said that external law such as the Illinois Concealed Carry Act trumps the bargaining agreement between Knox’s union — the IBEW — and Ameren, making the decision clear-cut when it came to labor law. Kanne, appointed to the federal bench in 1982 by President Ronald Reagan, however, maintained that the right to keep and bear arms was not expressly part of the arbitration.
“We stress that although the original dispute involved rules regulating the carrying of firearms, today’s dispute deals solely with the law of labor arbitration,” said Kanne. “Neither party has raised any claim under the Second Amendment, and we express no opinion regarding the Concealed Carry Act or internal corporate policies regarding weapons.”