9th Circuit overturns two county mandates that closed gun shops and firing ranges.

1
Two California counties' mandates forcing gun shops and firing ranges, like many other businesses, to close in the early days of the pandemic in order to slow the spread of COVID-19 were unconstitutional, a U.S. appeals court ruled Thursday.

The rulings came from a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel of three Republican-appointed judges, including one who predicted the liberal-leaning court might ultimately bless the bans imposed by Ventura and Los Angeles Counties on further appellate review.

Both counties had issued a series of stay-at-home orders and restrictions on non-essential businesses that included a 48-day closure of gun shops, ammunition shops and firing ranges following the onset of the pandemic in March 2020.

Would-be gun owners and gun-rights advocacy groups including the Second Amendment Foundation sued, arguing the rules violated the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment by banning acquiring firearms for self-defense purposes.

Two lower-court judges declined to block the counties' bans in 2020. While the counties later withdrew the prohibitions, the 9th Circuit said the cases were not moot since the plaintiffs sought nominal damages.

U.S. Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke in the Ventura County case said its orders barred citizens "from realizing their right to keep and bear arms, both by prohibiting access to acquiring any firearm and ammunition, and barring practice at firing ranges with any firearms already owned."

Raymond DiGuiseppe, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at The DiGuiseppe Law Firm, in an email said the rulings reached "what is undoubtedly the right outcome."

Ashley Bautista, a spokesperson for Ventura County, in a statement called the ruling disappointing and said the county was evaluating what steps to take next.

VanDyke, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump, in an unusual step issued a concurring opinion to his own ruling acknowledging most judges in the circuit would disagree with him and predicting a larger panel would hear the case en banc.

The conservative judge, a frequent critic of 9th Circuit's precedents, said any firearm-related regulation could be upheld under the circuit's "exceptionally malleable" approach to Second Amendment challenges.

To prove that point, he authored an "alternative draft opinion" favoring Ventura County to "demonstrate just how easy it is to reach any desired conclusion under our current framework."

VanDyke was joined by U.S. Circuit Judges Ryan Nelson and Andrew Kleinfeld, who in his own concurring opinion said: "Neither pandemic nor even war wipes away the Constitution."

The cases in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals are McDougall v. Ventura County, No. 20-56220, and Martinez v. Villanueva, No. 20-56233.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/governmen ... 022-01-20/

More gun cases in the 9th Circuit and Van Dyke is correct, these cases will probably be overturned by an en banc ruling of the 9th Circuit.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: 9th Circuit overturns two county mandates that closed gun shops and firing ranges.

2
Well this is amusing...
Why would a judge write an opposing argument to his own opinion? I mean isn’t the entire purpose of High School Debate clubs to show that any issue can be seen from different perspectives, argued from different value systems for radically different conclusions? In essence VanDyke just shot his own foot (pun intended) in illustrating the culture war that is gripping CA and eventually the nation: Is the 2A (access to and gun ownership in general) seen as a immutable individual rights or can emergency powers suspend any and all constitutional rights? I think the answer to that is somewhat obvious in that martial law has always been the backstop of social order and the National Guard called out on several occasions to prevent 1A free speech (ostensibly) from devolving into riots. Clearly 10A (freedom to travel) would be curtailed if a pandemic got bad enough to enforce a quarantine the likes of China (however unlikely though clearly not impossible in America).

I find VanDyke myopic and self-defeating to write an opposing opinion out of spite for the other’s viewpoints; cutting off one’s nose as it were. He displays a typical failing of many conservatives, over-reliance on rigid belief systems, while his training as a legal expert tells him everything ultimately is open to interpretation.
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

Re: 9th Circuit overturns two county mandates that closed gun shops and firing ranges.

3
The panel decision he wrote, also needed the buy in from the other two judges. His concurring opinion was totally his own and he just pointed out the obvious in 9th Circuit gun rulings. I doubt these two cases will get to SCOTUS.

China is not the only one to enforce travel restrictions, Australia did it and some EU countries in spite of the EU commission. That would have been a better approach, but it would have really caused supply chain problems and no US politician had the cojones to do it. It was done for international flights and ships, but domestic flights, car and rail travel continued.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: 9th Circuit overturns two county mandates that closed gun shops and firing ranges.

4
The issue, Bisbee, is that CA9 has ruled against all approximately 50 gun rights cases since Heller. Every. Fucking. One. Every case that has prevailed at the 3 judge panel has been overturned at en banc. I think the judge has a very valid point. No other constitutional right has such an unblemished record of acceptable state limitations as the 2A under CA9. If ever there was a shining example of biased jurisprudence, this is it. Such should be called out.

Re: 9th Circuit overturns two county mandates that closed gun shops and firing ranges.

5
featureless wrote: Fri Jan 21, 2022 1:26 pm The issue, Bisbee, is that CA9 has ruled against all approximately 50 gun rights cases since Heller. Every. Fucking. One. Every case that has prevailed at the 3 judge panel has been overturned at en banc. I think the judge has a very valid point. No other constitutional right has such an unblemished record of acceptable state limitations as the 2A under CA9. If ever there was a shining example of biased jurisprudence, this is it. Such should be called out.
Gee that is like the Fifth Circuit ruling against the liberals and abortion.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: 9th Circuit overturns two county mandates that closed gun shops and firing ranges.

6
featureless wrote: Fri Jan 21, 2022 1:26 pm The issue, Bisbee, is that CA9 has ruled against all approximately 50 gun rights cases since Heller. Every. Fucking. One. Every case that has prevailed at the 3 judge panel has been overturned at en banc. I think the judge has a very valid point. No other constitutional right has such an unblemished record of acceptable state limitations as the 2A under CA9. If ever there was a shining example of biased jurisprudence, this is it. Such should be called out.
+1

And that is why all of us and media reporters state which federal judges or SCOTUS justices were appointed by which president, they have political bias. Judges aren't totally non-partisan, they are humans with opinions that spill over into their judicial decisions.

And I have no doubt that the 5th Circuit leans towards Republicans, like the 9th Circuit leans towards Democrats. Another reason why we should abolish "senior status" and bring in term limits for federal judges. Federal judges with life time appointments become "group think".
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: 9th Circuit overturns two county mandates that closed gun shops and firing ranges.

7
TrueTexan wrote: Fri Jan 21, 2022 1:34 pm
featureless wrote: Fri Jan 21, 2022 1:26 pm The issue, Bisbee, is that CA9 has ruled against all approximately 50 gun rights cases since Heller. Every. Fucking. One. Every case that has prevailed at the 3 judge panel has been overturned at en banc. I think the judge has a very valid point. No other constitutional right has such an unblemished record of acceptable state limitations as the 2A under CA9. If ever there was a shining example of biased jurisprudence, this is it. Such should be called out.
Gee that is like the Fifth Circuit ruling against the liberals and abortion.
Precisely. It's fucked either way and I'm all for calling it out.

Re: 9th Circuit overturns two county mandates that closed gun shops and firing ranges.

10
"Neither pandemic nor even war wipes away the Constitution."
Unless, of course, the ones in power are Republicans--re: The Patriot Act, The Military Commissions Act, banning abortion, taking away the right to vote, etc.
The older I get the more I detest Republicans.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: 9th Circuit overturns two county mandates that closed gun shops and firing ranges.

11
unit1069 wrote: Sat Jan 29, 2022 10:43 am Glad to learn that the Ninth Circuit has finally followed the US Constitution instead of trying to rewrite it to suit their ideological preconceptions.
Right, isn't this what we were hoping for?

Judges flip flop all the time. Just depends which way the winds blowing.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,”

Re: 9th Circuit overturns two county mandates that closed gun shops and firing ranges.

12
tonguengroover wrote: Sat Jan 29, 2022 11:51 am
unit1069 wrote: Sat Jan 29, 2022 10:43 am Glad to learn that the Ninth Circuit has finally followed the US Constitution instead of trying to rewrite it to suit their ideological preconceptions.
Right, isn't this what we were hoping for?

Judges flip flop all the time. Just depends which way the winds blowing.
It is. Problem is, it will now be heard en banc (almost certainly) where the 3 judge panel will be overturned. That is precisely the point of Van Dyke's opinion.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Bisbee and 0 guests