Lautenberg takes a hit
Via the Geek, the seventh circuit says criminal may not prevent gun ownership:
We therefore assume that Skoien’s Second Amendment rights are intact notwithstanding his misdemeanor domestic-violence conviction.
Appears to be a months-old case but I missed it.
January 15th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
FYI, you did not know about it as it was not a Second Amendment case.
One of the concurring judges, John Tinder, is a former USA, Southern District Indiana, and district court judge who indicated at times of his concern over such things as minimum mandatory sentences.
The 7th Circuit may be considered “conservative” but it has a streak of Libertarianism in the woodpile.
January 15th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
Nonsense, it’s precisely a Second Amendment case. Just read the opinion.
However, it’s not a final resolution. The Seventh Circuit remands the case back to the federal district judge below, who had, in the usual totally breezy fashion of RKBA-despising federal judges, upheld Lautenberg against Second Amendment challenge without even a rudimentary analysis.
The Seventh Circuit essentially says, “No, dude, you have to actually take this seriously,” then sent the case back to him with some pointers for how a more careful and thorough analysis might go. They strongly hint that if the district court does its job right, the statute will eventually be upheld as constitutional under intermediate scrutiny.
On the other hand, they left the door open for the possibility of strict scrutiny, and strongly hinted that if strict scrutiny applies, then the statute is unconstitutional.
January 15th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Anon Reader Dude took the words off my page, so yeah . . . . what he said.