Constitutional Law

Gura contra Wilkinson

Posted on July 07, 2009
Here's Alan Gura's response, scheduled for UCLA Law Review, to Judge Wilkinson's anti-Heller article. Wilkinson argued that conservatives should reject Heller -- implicitly using his own definition of conservative as someone strongly disfavoring courts' striking down of legislation on constitutional grounds...

Amicus briefs in Chicago case

Posted on July 07, 2009
Amicus briefs have been filed at the cert. stage (i.e., asking the Supreme Court to take the case, not directly arguing who should win, which can be briefed later if the Court does take it) have been filed. In pdf form, here are: The brief of 33 States, authored by the Texas Attorney General...

Harold Fish conviction reversed

Posted on July 05, 2009
Pdf of AZ Ct of Appeals ruling here. To shave a long opinion to its core-- Fish was hiking, saw another guy, waved, other guy's dogs charged him, he fired a warning shot. Then the other guy charged him, crazed look in eyes, windmilling arms and shouting threats...

Government drops charges against Kwan

Posted on July 04, 2009
David Codrea has the story, here. Short version: Albert Kwan is a legit machine gun collector. FBI or ATF (reports are unclear) raided his house and found two combination holster/shoulder stocks for certain H&K pistols. Kwan owned a registered, full auto H&K of that type; since it was already registered as a full auto, owning or attaching a shoulder stock would be no legal problem (you don't have to register a gun twice because it is full auto and has a short barrel with shoulder stock; one registration per gun is enough)...

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Results of Georgia bill allowing carry in restaurants that serve drinks

Posted on July 03, 2009
Over at the Atlanta Examiner, Ed Stone has thoughts on the first anniversary of HB 89, which allowed carrying in restaurants and on mass transit. He cites media predictions of mass drunken violence, "escalated gunfight with dozens of innocent Georgians paying the price," etc...

Is Nordyke's 2A/14A section holding or dictum?

Posted on June 30, 2009
Over at the Volokh Conspiracy, Prof. Volokh argues that Nordyke's finding that the 14th Amendment incorporates the 2nd Amendment is part of its holding, and not dictum. BTW, postings have been slack because I'm still recovering from the operation. Had a complication, infection, that put me on my back for days, and now another -- a tube into me that came partially loose -- and this does tend to reduce blogging time!

DC v. Heller--a one year roundup

Posted on June 29, 2009
At Reason Hit and Run. To think it's only been one year... Hat tip to Instapundit....

local media on Mexican gun problems

Posted on June 28, 2009
Story here. An all too typical piece, written in a few hours. There are gun shows, interview and quote some antigunners, make claims without proof (i.e., that four firearms are the weapons of choice), confuse full and semiauto, and publish.

Petition for cert. in 2nd Cir incorporation case

Posted on June 26, 2009
PDf is here.

Sandy Froman on Sonia Sotomayer

Posted on June 25, 2009
Her Townhall column is here.

Case with NFA list implications

Posted on June 25, 2009
Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, handed down today. Defendant charged with cocaine possession. To prove it was coke, State introduced a sworn lab report to that effect. Defendant's objections that this violated his right to be confronted with the witnesses against him was rejected...

Lautenburg proposes "terror watch list" to be disqualifier for guns

Posted on June 23, 2009
And Classical Values takes him apart.

US district court splits the constitutional baby

Posted on June 19, 2009
Discussion here, over at the Volokh Conspiracy.

PA appeals court strikes down Philadelphia gun ordinance

Posted on June 18, 2009
Story here.

Fed subpoena online newspaper comments

Posted on June 18, 2009
Story here. A newspaper story on a tax prosecution drew some overwrought comments, and the prosecution team wants to know all about the commenters. The prosecution is interesting -- I remember someone asking this question 30 years ago. If a person agrees to be paid thirty dollars -- but only via thirty rare silver dollars, each worth $1000 -- is his taxable income from that $30 or $30,000?

NY Times on incorporation

Posted on June 17, 2009
Article here. It's ... almost balanced. Of course the problem the MSM has is that while one can give a knee-jerk label of conservative to gun rights, the opposite label attaches to incorporation. "Incorporation fell out of favor after the 1960s, but a new generation of largely liberal scholars of law and history have brought it back into the intellectual mainstream, said Akhil Reed Amar, a law professor at Yale University, who supports the process...

Results in SAF/Alan Gura suit against DC

Posted on June 17, 2009
SAF, rep'd by Alan Gura, sued DC in a followup action to challenge its post-Heller handgun regs. A recent SAF bulletin reports that DC has caved on one of the major provisions, i.e., adoption of the California list of "approved" handguns.

An interesting auction

Posted on June 17, 2009
It's for the revolver that police Capt. Timothy O'Neil used against Dillinger in Dillinger's last gunfight.

Anti-stabbing knife on sale in Britain

Posted on June 16, 2009
Story here. Its inventor "was inspired by a documentary in which doctors advocated banning traditional knives." And to think these guys' fathers held off the Nazis.... Hat tip to reader Jim Kindred....

Even in Chicago, some officers have the right orientation

Posted on June 14, 2009
From Alphecca: "They pretended that the victim had not broken the law by defending himself with an illegal handgun. ?Nothing was said about the gun going off,? he said. ?The police come over to make a report. The guy said to me, ?Well, you?re lucky you weren?t killed...

I didn't need this...

Posted on June 13, 2009
At a stage in healing when laughing still hurts some, I didn't need to read these email exchanges.

SCOTUSBlog on upcoming 14th Amendment cases

Posted on June 13, 2009
Discussion here.

An article in Reason

Posted on June 12, 2009
on why the Court should rule the right way in the Chicago case and in Nordyke. UPDATE: the Court goes out of session late this month (before any of the petitions will be fully briefed), so the briefing will be completed over its summer break. It comes back to state the new Term on the first Monday in October...

LA Times endorses 14th Amendment incorporation

Posted on June 10, 2009
Editorial

UK: once more, once more into the morass, my friends...

Posted on June 10, 2009
From the UK: a mob tries to rob some golfers of their equipment, menacing them with wood planks. When they attack the golfers, the golfers fight back and they lay out some of the robbers. Police arrest the golfers on charges of causing gross bodily injury...

Ten most absurd Time covers of all time

Posted on June 10, 2009
Story at Reason Online. The magazine documents how we are to be destroyed by Satanism, porno, overpopulation, drugs, schoolyard shootings, obesity, crack babies, and Pokemon. OK, so they had a point about Pokemon....

Ted Cruz working a crowd

Posted on June 07, 2009
Video here. The fellow can think and speak, and thinks in terms of freedom. If I was in Texas, he'd get my vote for anything. Hat tip to reader John Drogin....

Petition for cert. in one of the 7th Cir. cases

Posted on June 04, 2009
Pdf here, courtesy of Prof, Eugene Volokh.

Condition, pt. 2

Posted on June 03, 2009
Home! So glad to get here, after a week of spending about 23.5 hours per day flat on my back in a very small bed, unable even to roll over due to tubes coming in or going out from belly, arms, etc.. Realized I hadn't mentioned what the condition was...

Condition

Posted on June 02, 2009
Surgeon says I may go home in next few days. Will still be in lousy shape, but at least can be in bad shape under own roof. Number of tubes going into and out of me has dropped from about a dozen to a mere four, and must drop to two for release.

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