Just filed our final responsive brief in Duncan. Benitez should rule on this in the coming weeks.
Some highlights in this thread, starting with how the state basically threw everything at the wall, because it had no historical law to point to pertaining to magazine capacity.
The State tried to straddle the line on whether or not magazines are arms, arguing that while some magazine is necessary for many firearms to function, it doesn't need to be one of over ten rounds. And because of that, the Second Amendment is not implicated at all.
This is a brazen attempt by the government to re-insert interest balancing under the guise of a plain text analysis.
Trying to sneak in Sweeney and Tucker's declarations from other cases was a lame move. And the latter, Colonel Tucker, is a joke.
"14 or more killed" is a very strange metric indeed. I bet the State's lawyers saw that there was a mass shooting with 13 killed that didn't involved so-called "LCMs", so they set the line at 14. But according to the reporting, the Parkland shooter used ten round magazines too.
If states had regulated repeating arms when they came onto the scene, California would have had a great analogue. But they didn't.
Because they didn't, the State bizarrely argues that some of the most iconic guns of the era were uncommon. K.
A common refrain from the State is that "experts" like Saul Cornell should be allowed to tell us what laws the founders would have accepted. This is utter BS.
We basically always insert something like this now so @fourboxesdiner doesn't yell at us 🤣
The Ninth Circuit is BIG mad about Judge VanDyke's latest dissent from denial of en banc rehearing.
Yes, it certainly is provocative. I guess Judge VanDyke may have read "Plain English for Lawyers."
But their outrage is misplaced. What they should be outraged at is this absurd situation. Biological men trying to force their way into a Korean spa that serves women and girls? Have we gone mad?
I am not some hardcore anti-trans activist, and I criticized the rumors of a "trans gun ban" last year. But this is preposterous. Nobody should be able force their way into a place where women and girls are exposed and vulnerable, with the State of Washington assisting them no less!
If a eyebrow-raising dissent helps this get attention (I certainly hadn't heard of this case before now), then good.
The basic facts of the case.
Note that the spa doesn't even ban trans women, just pre-op trans women. Pretty progressive overall for a traditional Korean spa.
Yet it wasn't enough.
Sidenote - this kind of legal bullying does not do the trans community any favors in terms of public perception.
The Duncan petitioners have filed a short supplemental brief regarding the Benson ruling from the DC Court of Appeals. Let's take a look.
Strong summary, asserting there is an effective circuit split now and reminding the Court that denying the petition would mean thousands of Californians would be made criminals overnight.
The only thing I would have added was a line anticipating a possible en banc in DC. I'd say such a transparently corrupt move, given how rare en banc is, would only be further evidence that the Court must decide this issue as gun rights litigants otherwise have no hope in biased courts.
The Duncan Petitioners argue that the Benson ruling is an example of one that is faithful to Heller and Bruen, while the Ninth Circuit's ruling tried to undermine them.
As a bit of a sneak preview of an upcoming amicus brief, let's take a look at how much more it costs to buy a handgun in California compared to most of the rest of the country using a compact Walther PDP as an example.
As you can see above, a standard one with a 15 round magazine goes for $530 on Bass Pro's website.
But that website also lets you select the California-compliant model instead, which comes with the state-mandated loaded chamber indicator, magazine disconnect mechanism, and 10 round magazines. Those unwanted but required "features" turn a $530 gun into a $649 gun.
But we are only just getting started!
California also required a background check for every gun purchase. In most other states, that background check is free. But California charges a $31.19 Dealer Record of Sale fee, a $1 Firearms Safety Act Fee, and a $5 Safety and Enforcement fee. $37.19 in total for the background check.
The Supreme Court requested a response last week in a pro se petition filed by an extremely sympathetic petitioner caught up in an interstate carry mess.
I had not heard of this case before (pro se petitions are usually DOA), but given they called for a response, I will be considering an amicus brief in this case.
The questions presented, if granted, would obviously be narrowed.
This article is misleading and also a masterclass in how to lie by omission. Let's break it down.
Two bits of background information you should know beforehand:
1. "Stand Your Ground" does one thing, and one thing only: it gets rid of any duty to retreat before lawful self-defense. Every other element of self-defense must still be present before you resort to lethal force, or you are going to prison. It mainly serves to stop asshole prosecutors from second-guessing whether you "could have run away instead" in a life-or-death situation.
2. Stand Your Ground is the law in most of the country, including many Democrat states like California and Colorado. Varying levels of duty to retreat basically only exist in the Northeast at this point, plus Minnesota. Wisconsin and Nebraska have their own hybrids too. The rest of the country has Stand Your Ground either by statute or via common law.
The article begins with a double-lie:
"In 30 states, it often requires only a claim you killed while protecting yourself or others."
First of all, it's not 30 states, it's more like 40. But we can already see where they are going: trying to obfuscate about the blue states that also have SYG via common law, to make this about the "bad" progun red states.
Second, it's not true that it only requires a "claim", you must have all the elements of self-defense. Sure, sometimes the facts can be murky, especially if the only other witness is dead, but that's the case with any self-defense claim.
This bit right here is completely outrageous to me. It is absolutely preposterous for a judge to redirect federal spending against what congress appropriated it for.
Why even have a separation of powers? Hell, the judge may as well order Congress to end the shutdown on his precise terms. What would be the difference? He is already taking over the power of the purse with this order.
I don't even think it was right for the judge to order the spending of the very limited contingency funds, as judges should not get to decide how money designated for an emergency gets spent.
However, at least that point was arguable. The further step he took was baseless and constitution-torching.
I hope the Supreme Court intervenes on this. I wish @AGPamBondi and team the best of luck.
Shutdowns are a high-stakes political game. If you are going to keep the government shutdown, it can't be the case that you get to run to courts and have your priorities ordered to be funded.
Congress has not appropriated more money for SNAP. The program basically doesn't exist until they do. Federal judges should not get to order it back into existence.