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22 Jul 2024, 6:36 pm
[Court relies on Rahimi in support of liberalized gun carry permits.] Anyone hoping that the Supreme Court's Rahimi decision (which I analyzed here) would represent a roll-back in recognition of Second Amendment rights must be in for a surprise with the Eighth Circuit's decision in Worth v. Jacobson. Authored by Judge Duane Benton, the court affirmed the decision of the district court and held that Minnesota's limitation of gun carry permits to persons 21 years old and over… [read post]
31 Oct 2023, 12:13 pm
[Merrick Garland tells Supreme Court to apply his new, vague test, not Bruen decision. ] On November 7, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in United States v. Rahimi. That's the case in which the Fifth Circuit unanimously held that 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8) violates the Second Amendment. Section 922(g)(8) is the federal statute that prohibits individuals who are subject to a state domestic violence restraining order (DVRO) from possessing any firearm. Under the federal law, they… [read post]
25 Aug 2008, 9:06 pm
expenses and costs claim totaling $13,215.30, the largest sums were for payments to attorneys Stephen [read post]
13 Jan 2009, 6:20 pm
On that issue, they've arranged for the committee to hear from Stephen P. [read post]
23 Jul 2024, 4:42 am
As noted by scholars such as Stephen Halbrook, it is also the first appellate court to rely on the Supreme [read post]
1 May 2025, 7:20 pm
[“Where arms may be carried” and “what types of arms people may possess” should be resolved.] The United States has filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the cert petition in Wolford v. Lopez seeking review of the following issue: "Whether the Second Amendment allows a State to make it unlawful for concealed-carry license-holders to carry firearms on private property open to the public without the property owner's express authorization." As the brief… [read post]
3 Apr 2025, 7:10 pm
[The third time isn’t the charm.] A lot of water has poured over the dam since Judge Roger Benitez of the Southern District of California issued a preliminary injunction in 2017 against enforcement of California's ban on possession of a magazine holding over ten rounds. Since then, Duncan v. Becerra has been up and down the ladder from the district court to the Ninth Circuit for multiple panel and en banc decisions and then to the Supreme Court, which sent it back for… [read post]
20 Mar 2025, 6:24 pm
[Both sides agree the Supreme Court should grant cert.] On March 10, the respondents in the successful challenge to Minnesota's ban on issuance of pistol carry permits to persons aged 18 to 20, Jacobson v. Worth, agreed with the state petitioner that the Supreme Court should grant certiorari in the case. The Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, the petitioner, asked the Court to grant, vacate, and remand (GVR) the case and in the alternative to resolve it on the merits. … [read post]
26 Feb 2025, 6:44 pm
[The new Administration should notify the Court of its change in position on ATF regulations.] As of now, of the nine cases argued in the Supreme Court's October calendar, five have been decided. Still pending is Garland v. VanDerStok, which was argued on October 8. Before rendering a decision, the Court should give the Trump Administration an opportunity to express its views of the case with the Court. It's a challenge to the Final Rule of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,… [read post]
7 Jan 2025, 6:35 pm
The Supreme Court has distributed two important cases for its conference of January 10. One is Snope v. Brown, which concerns whether Maryland may ban semiautomatic rifles that are in common use for lawful purposes. The other is Ocean State Tactical v. Rhode Island, which asks whether a retrospective, confiscatory ban on the possession of ammunition feeding devices that are in common use violates the Second Amendment. The Court should grant the petitions for writs of certiorari. … [read post]
12 Feb 2024, 8:20 pm
[Not really, it was only wishful thinking.] On February 7, the Supreme Court of Hawai'i decided State v. Wilson, upholding state criminal laws confining handguns and ammunition to the "possessor's place of business, residence, or sojourn." A separate provision provides for permits to carry (which historically no one got), but the defendant had not applied for a permit and thus had no standing to challenge that provision. Article I, § 17 of the Hawai'i… [read post]
25 Jan 2024, 6:55 pm
[State and federal agencies express views that are thinly-veiled diktats.] State and federal agencies routinely issue "guidance" in the form of public statements and private letters that are actually veiled commands and threats of adverse consequences for failure to obey. Interpretive regulations, which supposedly only express an agency's opinion and are non-binding, may serve the same function. Such communications may be beyond the agency's legal authority or may be a way to… [read post]
13 Jul 2023, 7:28 pm
[Third Circuit briefing is ongoing in challenge to rifle ban signed into law just a week after Bruen. ] On June 30, 2022, just a week after the Supreme Court decided the Bruen case, Delaware Governor John Carney signed into law a ban on "assault weapons" and standard-capacity magazines, effective immediately. Apparently he didn't get the memo that a ban on firearms in common use is off the table constitutionally. Delaware plagiarized California's 1989 findings that it was… [read post]
2 Dec 2025, 7:02 pm
[The DOJ claims basis in the tax power and the commerce clause, and no Second Amendment problem.] As I previously explained in "The Zero Tax on NFA Firearms," serious constitutional issues arise about the constitutional validity of the registration and other requirements of the National Firearms Act as to the firearms that now have a $0 tax. They include short barreled shotguns (SBSs), short-barreled rifles (SBRs), silencers, and "any other weapons" (AOLs). … [read post]
6 Apr 2023, 8:04 pm
[Young adults are included in “the people” protected by the Second Amendment.] Several decisions have been rendered recently on whether persons aged 18 to 20 have a Second Amendment right to carry or purchase a handgun or any firearm. I'd like to highlight the March 31, 2023, decision of U.S. district judge Katherine Menendez (D. Minn.), which is one of the most thorough decisions to date on the young-adult carry issue. The case is Worth v. Harrington. Judge Menendez… [read post]
15 Dec 2025, 6:48 pm
[ATF’s expansive regulation conflicts with U.S. position that only habitual users are disarmed.] The Supreme Court has granted cert in U.S. v. Hemani, which concerns the constitutionality of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3), which forbids a person from possessing a firearm in or affecting commerce if he "is an unlawful user of … any controlled substance." The United States just filed its opening brief, stating: "At issue here is Section 922(g)(3)'s disarmament of a… [read post]
18 Jan 2026, 6:34 pm
[Wolford presents a good opportunity for the Supreme Court to explain why.] In Wolford v. Lopez, the Supreme Court has the opportunity to clarify for the lower courts the difference between legislative and adjudicative facts. Lower courts hostile to the Second Amendment routinely confuse legislative and adjudicative facts, seeking to turn Second Amendment litigation into an expensive and time-consuming battle of the academic experts and historians where the "winner's" opinions are… [read post]
[Stephen Halbrook] Second Amendment Roundup: U.S. Files Amicus Brief in Illinois Rifle Ban Challenge
16 Jun 2025, 7:00 pm
[Brief argues that no “militaristic” arm exception exists.] The United States has filed an amicus brief in Barnett v. Raoul, the challenge to Illinois' ban on semiautomatic rifles and standard magazines pending in the Seventh Circuit. This is the first time the Department of Justice has ever argued against such a ban. It defended the federal ban that was enacted in 1994 and expired in 2004. As the brief recalls, in Bruen (2022) the Supreme Court emphatically reinforced… [read post]
17 Feb 2025, 8:27 pm
[It’s time to have a serious discussion about a device that enhances the exercise of the right.] On February 6, the Fifth Circuit decided United States v. Peterson, holding that noise suppressors (aka silencers or mufflers) are not protected by the Second Amendment. Written by Chief Judge Jennifer Elrod, the court held that suppressors are not "Arms" within the Second Amendment's purview. Under Bruen, if an item is an "arm" within the text of "the… [read post]
2 Nov 2023, 2:58 pm
[The Government’s reply brief contains a host of mistakes, some quite elementary.] In two previous posts (here and here) I've pointed out some erroneous arguments by Merrick Garland's Justice Department in its reply brief filed in United States v. Rahimi. That's the case in which the Fifth Circuit recently struck down a federal statute imposing additional penalties, including a ban on the possession of firearms, on individuals subject to state domestic violence restraining… [read post]
