Quite a lot happened Friday, it seems. Let’s start with the good news:
Father Pfleger’s suit against suburban gun shop regulations has been dismissed.
4th Circuit has granted en banc review of the Kolbe v. Hogan case, the case which challenges Maryland’s assault weapons ban. This is not good news. However, if the en banc panel overturns the 3 judge panel which ordered strict scrutiny, Maryland would be the victor and we could always decline to seek cert before the Supreme Court. In an odd way, if we won, we’d be in greater jeopardy.
Why would winning put us in greater jeopardy? If our side goes to SCOTUS as the prevailing party they’d need 5 votes to overturn, same as if Scalia were still there.
If we go to SCOTUS as the losing party we’d need 5 votes to overturn, and we don’t have Scalia.
You make an excellent point.
In addition to that, let us say that the 4th Circuit had NOT granted en banc review, the Maryland AG still would have the option to appeal to SCOTUS.
Because Kennedy is not reliable.
Yeah, but this is just a strict scrutiny question. I think the language of Heller is clear that strict scrutiny should be employed.
It’s not clear that strict scrutiny should be employed from Heller. Heller only foreclosed on rational basis. What should have happened at the district level was intermediate scrutiny should have been used for the magazine restrictions and the ban should have fallen – but the district used intermediate and upheld the ban. So the appellate level elevated the scrutiny. That was an overreach – they should have reversed the ruling as improperly decided.
You can also throw in “Dredge” Roberts as unreliable to… With Roberts follow the money, especially the money his wife makes being a high priced lobbyist for a firm that has a plethora of health care industry clients.
Great News! Re: West Virginia.
And for those keeping score, out of the 8 states now with Constitutional Carry, 6 passed into law during the Obama administration.
Hah!
Vermont is a unique case, State Supreme Ct decision based on state Constitution at turn of century. No real similarity or parallel to the modern statutory creation.
So Obama’s failure is, if anything, even bigger.
I hope the enbanc does validate the 3 judge decision But if they agreed why review? If we win then it can be denied cert and the decision stands and if approve and goes 4-4 the decision stands. So the bad news already occurred Now we can just hope.
You have to recognize that a Republican governor is the man defending the “assault weapons” ban.
It was O’Malley’s gun control law but once Hogan took over he could have settled or let the District Court follow the Appeals Court guidance. He did neither.
Republican Governor Larry Hogan owns gun control now. He is the one pushing to have all semi-auto rifles removed from the Second Amendment in the 4th Circuit.
Not O’Malley, not Frosh and not the Democrats. This is coming from a Republican Governor. Hogan has been kissing the butt of the Dems for the past few months – attending events in the district of Senator Mike Miller and basically trying to make friends and get Dem leadership to like him. Pushing gun control is one way to get a cheap date, but they won’t respect him in the morning (after he get trounced in the next election).