2nd Amendment – Page 38 – Shall Not Be Questioned

State Legislator Brief

There is a brief for state legislators too, and the number is actually quite large. If your state legislator is on here, be sure to thank them. If they aren’t, be sure to let them know you wish they had signed on to the brief.

My understanding is the timing on this was tight, but they should hear from people regardless so they know what’s important to us. Just understand there are some good legislators that didn’t get their names on here because of the tight timeline. It doesn’t mean they are turning Gillibrand on us.

Attorneys General Brief

Thirty Eight state Attorneys General have signed on to a brief as well. Pennsylvania is included, so kudos to Tom Corbett for signing on. The states that are missing out on the fun are:

California
Connecticut
Delaware
Hawaii
Illinois
Iowa
Maryland
Massachusetts
New Jersey
New York
Oregon
Vermont

Not bad at all. But I’m disappointed in Oregon, Vermont, Iowa and Delaware. For states that don’t have bad gun laws, they aren’t performing as well as I think we should expect them to.

NRA Announced Bipartisan Congressional Amicus

Very good news for the McDonald case:

An overwhelming, bipartisan majority of members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have signed anÂ amicus curiae, or “friend of the court,” brief supporting the NRAâ€™s position that the Second Amendment is incorporated against the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. TheÂ amicus brief, bearing the signatures ofÂ 251 Members of CongressÂ and 58Â Senators, was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court today in the case ofÂ McDonald v. City of Chicago.

Enough members of the Pennsylvania delegation signed on, including both our Senators, that it’s easier just to list who didn’t sign on. Those are:

Bob Brady (D, PA-01)
Chaka Fattah (D, PA-02)
Kathleen Dahlkemper (D, PA-03)
Joe Sestak (D, PA-07)
Allyson Schwartz (D, PA-13)
Mike Doyle (D, PA-14)

That’s not bad out of 19 districts (well, not counting the recovery.gov districts). Even my Congressman, Patrick Murphy signed on. Maybe he’s reconsidering his position on Second Amendment rights? I hope so.

UPDATE: Anyone else notice the brief was written by Paul Clement? The Paul Clement who was Bush’s solicitor General who argued against us in the Heller case.

Academics for 2A Working on Another Brief

Clayton Cramer is working on finishing up the final cuts and edits for the Academics for the Second Amendment‘s brief in the McDonald case. They are also looking for donations to help offset the costs of filing the brief.

Support for McDonald from Mordor

Chuck Michel is reporting that:

Today, 34 California District Attorneys and 8 Nevada District Attorneys joined a consortium of other â€œfriends of the courtâ€ to file an â€œamicusâ€ brief in the United States Supreme Court in the cases ofMcDonald v. Chicago (08-1521) andÂ NRA v. Chicago (08-1497). Both cases ask the Supreme Court to hold that the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution stops state and local governments from infringing on the right to keep and bear arms, just as the Supreme Court has already held that the Second Amendment stops the federal government from infringing on that right.

For those of you who are curious, the California AGs who are signing on areÂ Will Richmond (Alpine), Todd Reibe (Amador), Michael Ramsey (Butte), John Poyner (Colusa), Michael D. Reise (Del Norte), Vern Pierson (El Dorado), Elizabeth A. Egan (Fresno), Robert Holzapfel (Glenn), Edward Jagels (Kern), Ron Calhoun (Kings), Gilbert Otero (Imperial), Michael R. Keitz (Madera), Robert H. Brown (Mariposa), Meredith Lintott (Mendocino), Larry Morse (Merced), Gary Woolverton (Modoc), George Booth (Mono), Tony Rackauckas (Orange), Brad Fenocchio (Placer), Candice Hooper (San Benito), Michael Ramos (San Bernardino), Bonnie M. Dumanis (San Diego), James Willett (San Joaquin), Christie Stanley (Santa Barbara), Gerald C. Benito (Shasta County), Larry Allen (Sierra), J. Kirk Andrus (Siskiyou), David W. Paulson (Solano), Carl V. Adams (Sutter), Greg Cohen (Tehama), Michael Harper (Trinity), Phil Cline (Tulare), Gregory Totten (Ventura), and Jeff Reisig (Yolo).

The Nevada Attorneys General who signed on areÂ Arthur E. Mallory (Churchill), Todd Leventhal (Esmerelda), Russell D. Smith (Humboldt), Hy Forgeron (Lander), Robert Auer (Lyon), Cheri Emm-Smith (Mineral), Jim Shirley (Pershing), and Richard Gammick (Washoe)

In addition to that, there are several California police organizations who have also signed on. California has fifty-eight counties, so this represents 3/5ths of California’s total counties, including some of their more urban counties. Nevada has sixteen counties total, so 1/2 of the counties in Nevada have signed on, including Washoe county which contains Reno and Tahoe. It’s actually kind of disappointing more didn’t sign on in Nevada.

What is Meant by “Good Enough”

I am believer in the old saying that perfect is the enemy of good, and there’s been no better example of that than George W. Bush’s presidency when it came to Second Amendment issues. It would be hard to argue the guy was our best buddy, after failing for years to deal with the National Park issue, then incompetently rushing it through toward the end, and after having his solicitor general argue against Mr. Heller’s position in front of the Supreme Court. But I’ve said that putting Alito and Roberts on the court was the best thing he did for us, and at the end of the day, saved the day. Here’s more evidence from the 7th Circuit’s decision on Lautenberg:

The Seventh Circuit opinion, which now has shifted the burden of proof to the Justice Department through an “intermediate scrutiny” standard, was written by Diane Sykes, a George W. Bush appointee, and joined by William Bauer, a Ford appointee, and John Tinder, a George W. Bush appointee.

Two George W. Bush appointees comprised that three judge panel making up the 3-0 decision to reverse and remand. Even though they did not find Lautenberg unconstitutional facially, they at least told the U.S. Attorney he had to take the Second Amendment seriously. And told the lower courts they had to as well. Many will say George W. Bush never deserved his NRA endorsement, and there were certainly times I agree with that, but we’ll probably be enjoying the benefits of the people he put on the bench for some time.

Briefs in the Chicago Case

Petitioners brief can be found here, which Dave Hardy says is very, very well done. NRA has also filed its brief in this case, which can be found here. Expect more briefs filed in McDonald to be forthcoming.

UPDATE: Dave Hardy points out that the NRA brief is actually filed as a respondent in support of the Petitioner, rather than an amicus brief, and describes the difference.

Massachusetts Trigger Lock Provision Oral Arguments

Looks like oral arguments happened today in the case which challenges the constitutionality of Massachusetts safe storage provisions.

“They went out of their way to say that the â€¦ decision was not invalidating laws that were enacted to prevent accidents and that such regulations were presumptively lawful,” Lillios told the state Supreme Judicial Court in oral arguments.

Except that held directly in the case was that DC’s trigger lock provision was unconstitutional. Massachusetts is slightly different, in that a trigger lock is required if the firearms out of the direct control of the licensee, but is not absolutely required. Still, there’s a good case to be made that Heller applies.

Wisconsin AG Gets Permission to File Brief

Oddly, in Wisconsin, the elected Attorney General is not allowed to sign on to briefs without permission from another branch.

In Heller, he did not get permission or did not seek it soon enough. In the effort to get the Chicago case to the Court, he also did not sign on to an effort by many other AGs, and gun owners finally called him out on it. He said it wasn’t his fault.

Interestingly, after that pressure, Van Hollen has secured permission early enough to actually get a brief into the Court for McDonald. That’s good for gun owners, good for Wisconsin, and good on Van Hollen for getting around to asking permission in time.

Guns as Smut

Eugene Volokh refutes a line of reasoning that tried to argue that guns rights could be limited only to the home by making first amendment analogy to obscenity laws. Having lost on the big question, those who disagree with the Second Amendment will now try to do their best to limit its scope. Folks like Eugene Volokh will be important for our side in fighting that battle within the legal community.