Constitutional Law

Post-Heller case on Lautenberg matter

At the Volokh Conspiracy, Gene Volokh has a posting on a rather thinly reasoned District Court case, involving a gun possessor who had a misdemeanor DV conviction. The court does little more than cite other post Heller district court decisions upholding other restrictions (e.g., felon in possession) in concluding that there is no 2A problem.

The comments are interesting, one of them pointing to the Defendant's motion to dismiss, which is as thin as the opinion, basically a bunch of quotes from Heller and then a note that Defendant was convicted only of a misdemeanor. Rather illustrative of the worries of many (including me) prior to Heller, that a 2A case might reach the Court on very flimsy arguments in a criminal case.

Also as some comments point out, district courts have massive dockets, and a natural inclination to duck complex legal issues -- those will be for the Circuit Courts to figure out. I spent part of today in a pretrial conference in the local US District Court, on a civil case. The judge reportedly has over 500 cases on his docket, mostly criminal and subject to deadlines. We needed two weeks for a civil trial, and got set for next March, unless a six week criminal trial that he has set cancels out. This is after all discovery and major motions have been dealt with, and everyone is ready to roll.

Full post as published by Of Arms and the Law on August 11, 2008 (boomark / email).