On December 11, 2012 United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Judges Posner and Flaum (Williams dissenting) ruled that “A right to bear arms thus implies a right to carry a loaded gun outside the home” and that “To confine the right to be armed to the home is to divorce the Second Amendment from the right of self-defense.”

Background
 
Michael Moore started his career in 1971 as a Corrections Officer with the Cook County Department of Corrections, and worked his way up, ending his career 30 years later as a Superintendent.

The Illinois Retired Officer Concealed Carry (IROCC) program is a State enactment of the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act, a Federal program enacted in 2004, exempting retired law enforcement officers from state laws and local ordinances prohibiting the carrying of concealed firearms.
 
On March 19, 2009, Moore and five other retired employees of the Cook County Sheriff's Department file suit against Larry Trent (Illinois State Police Director) and other members of the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board for denying their IROCC cards. According to Moore, during testimony, members of the board governing issuance of IROCC cards acknowledged that, under the federal law, correctional officers were classified as law enforcement and would qualify to be covered. However, the IROCC board used a State definition for law enforcement officers that did not include correctional officers.
 
Moore and company lost that lawsuit on December 16, 2010 with the United States District Court finding that authority to issue the card did rest with the State. But afterwards the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) asked Moore to join their efforts to repeal the ban on concealed carry in Illinois.
 
On May 12, 2011 Moore, SAF, et al. filed suit in the United States District Court seeking an injunction barring the State from enforcing the sections of the Illinois State Statutes that prohibit public carry of a loaded, functional firearm. They lost that suit on February 3, 2012, with the court finding found for the defendants, indicating that prior court decisions did not recognize the right to keep and bear arms as extending outside one's own home.
 
The plaintiffs appealed to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals where the case was merged with Shepard v. Madigan, due to a high degree of overlap between the two, as Moore v. Madigan (taking the common name from the first case to be appealed). Arguments were heard on June 8, 2012 and the decision was published December 11, 2012.