January 2010 – Page 14 – Shall Not Be Questioned

New Jersey Pols in McDonald Case

Cemetery points out some New Jersey pols that have signed up to oppose McDonald, in response to Bitter’s list of Pennsylvania reps who either joined, or who did not take a stand in the case.

Even in New Jersey, they could only get three Congressmen who wanted to go in record in favor of gun bans. I should also note that New Jersey had three Congressmen who joined the Congressional Brief supporting McDonald, and standing up for the Second Amendment, those reps are:

Representative E. Scott Garrett (NJ-5, R)
Representative Leonard Lance (NJ-7, R)
Representative Frank A. LoBiondo (NJ-2, R)

If you live in New Jersey, be sure to thank them. Even in the Brady Paradise of New Jersey, the anti-gun forces still couldn’t outnumber pro-Second Amendment forces.

Some Misconceptions about Motion for Divided Time

There’s been a few things I’ve seen floating around that probably could use some clarifying, about the NRA’s Motion for Divided Time that I spoke about here and here. Some folks in the comments were wondering why NRA can’t ask for some of Chicago’s time. The short answer is that they can’t. They are Respondents in Support of the Petitioner in this suit, meaning they are arguing against Chicago and in favor of McDonald’s position. Obviously the Court doesn’t allow the opposing sides in a case to divide each other’s time. If NRA wants time before the Court, they have to motion to divide Alan Gura’s time, not Chicago’s.

Second argument I’ve heard, reported on by Christopher Burg, is that there’s some other nefarious conservative concern at work here in regards to gay marriage. I can assure you that NRA is pretty singularly focused on the Second Amendment, and aren’t going to waste their time and resources with these kinds of ancillary concerns. As I’ve said, I think the motion is a mistake, but I do believe the NRA doing is what they think is the right thing.

Context is Lost

They always say that when your neighbor loses his job, it’s a recession. When you lose your job, it’s a depression. Did you know that when Ted Turner loses his job, it’s a national disaster on par with the losses and devastation of war?

The Time Warner-AOL merger should pass into history like the Vietnam War and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Itâ€™s one of the biggest disasters that have occurred to our country.

I lost 80 percent of my worth and subsequently lost my job.

Ted Turner, who is the nation’s single largest landowner and still sits on about $2 billion, considers one job loss to be a national loss on par with Vietnam. You’d think with all of that wealth, he could afford some class and decency. People losing job after job, families losing homes, and soldiers giving up their lives for our freedom are absolutely nothing compared to Ted Turner’s personal bank account being worth a paltry $2 billion because of a bad business deal. For Ted Turner, the nation should mourn his investment losses the same way they mourn a fallen hometown boy who returned from a far away land in a box with a flag draped over it. I’d say old Ted lost a little context on life.

More on the NRA Motion

Today Alan Gura filed an Opposition to NRA’s Motion for Divided Argument, as is reported by SCOTUSBlog. A few things to clarify from the previous post. NRA is asking for 10 minutes out of the 30 allotted to the Petitioners, not for half the time. But also keep in mind that the State Attorneys General have also filed a Motion for Divided Argument, asking for ten minutes themselves. It is exceedingly unlikely that the Court will grant two motions of this type, and also unlikely they will expand oral arguments.

I don’t think NRA filed this motion out of any foul intention, or with the idea in mind to throw a monkey wrench in anything. That said, while I understand and recognize the legitimacy of NRA’s likely concerns, I do not agree that filing this Motion for Divided Time was an appropriate outlet. Let me briefly explaining my reasoning.

The Motion itself is very unlikely to succeed. The Court typically only grants these types of motions under pretty limited circumstances, and after reading NRA’s Motion and the Petitioners opposition to the motion, I think that NRA is on shaky legal ground. The long odds on the success of the motion make its use as any kind of vehicle suspect.
Even if the Hail Mary tactic works, what does it really get you in relation to your core concern? So the National Rifle Association gets Clement 10 minutes of time before the Court. It’s not like Clement gets to make a ten minute speech on the merits of due process. He’ll pretty much be answering questions posed by the justices just like anyone else who would occupy that hot seat.
At this point in the case, Alan Gura really needs to be spending his time and energy responding to Chicago and all the briefs filed in support of the respondents. I don’t think spending time and energy writing oppositions to motions that he did not invite into his case is really the best use of his time.

Ultimately my concern is that this jeopardizes relationships that are going to be important for NRA going forward after McDonald, and without much to show for it when all is said and done. I might reconsider my opinion if the Court, against all odds, grants the motion (because of what that might hint at), but I don’t think that’s likely at this point. There’s been a lot of speculation about what the court was hinting at when it granted cert for McDonald and kept NRA on hold. You can see some of that here. On what strategy would be best for McDonald, I think reasonable people can disagree on, but the Supreme Court granted cert on this case. Our rights are now in Alan Gura’s hands, which I think are quite capable. I think NRA has already brought much to this case in terms of laying a strong political basis for gun rights, getting the right people elected who put the right people on the Court, and in terms of bringing resources to bear to aid Heller and McDonald. These are commendable and worthwhile contributions. I don’t think this Motion for Divided Time fits within that, and seems to me to be not be very well thought out.

CeaseFire New Jersey Defunct, Now Rolled up With Peaceniks

Looks like CeaseFire New Jersey is defunct, and has been rolled into the Coalition for Peace Action.

Good News for California Sportsmen

The courts have ruled that you’re allowed to have some rights. But just a few, so don’t get uppity. (One judge apparently says you have no protection from full searches just because you do hunt and fish.)

The California Court of Appeal for the Fourth District on Tuesday ruled that a state agency may not pull over and search a motorist on a mere hunch that a lobster might be hidden in the vehicle. The court considered the case of Bounh Maikhio, a motorist stopped by Department of Fish and Game Warden Erik Fleet on August 19, 2007 at 11pm. That evening, Fleet had been spying through a telescope on the Ocean Beach pier in San Diego when he saw Maikhio put something into his bag.

Fleet testified that he did not “necessarily” suspect Maikhio of a crime because he had no way of knowing whether the man had been fishing legitimately or not. Regardless, Fleet waited until Maikhio had driven away from the pier to stop him. While searching through his car. Fleet found Maikhio’s bag, which contained a spiny lobster. Maikhio was handcuffed and cited for lobster possession during closed season.

The case is of particular interest because California Attorney General Jerry Brown argued that a state warden has the right to stop any driver “without reasonable suspicion that he committed any crime.” Maikhio, in contrast, could not afford to hire an attorney and was represented by the public defender’s office which argued no such authority existed. The appeals court agreed, citing a 1944 attorney general’s ruling. The court argued that wardens could enforce the law without harassing motorists. …

The court went on to explain that because the warden had no individualized suspicion that Maikhio had been involved in criminal activity, the stop was just as unconstitutional as setting up a roadblock to search every passing vehicle for lobsters. …

Justice Patricia D. Benke disagreed, arguing that Constitutional protections do not apply to motorists who may also be hunters or fishermen.

“Because of the highly regulated nature of hunting and fishing and the consequent diminished expectation of privacy of hunters and fisherman, there is no requirement in our statutes or under the Constitution that a game warden believe that any crimes have been committed or that any game regulations have been violated before exercising his or her powers of inspection,” Benke wrote in her dissent.

Does that mean a game warden can go search Benke’s house without any suspicion she actually committed a crime? Well, they can’t thanks to the decision of her fellow judges, but by her own logic, that would seemingly be allowed.

Gerlach Out, Then in, Then Out, Then In

Rep. Jim Gerlach announced last year that he would give up the 6th district Congressional seat to run for something. First it was going to be challenging Pat Toomey for the Senate nomination. Then it wasn’t. Next, Gerlach announced he’d run for Governor and challenge Attorney General Tom Corbett for the GOP nomination. Yesterday, he changed his mind about that, too.

This morning, John Micek gave hints that there may have been an important timing factor beyond just the low fundraising numbers (he raised only $1 million, not enough to run a statewide campaign):

Gerlach’s exit came just about 48 hours before central Pennsylvania Republicans are to meet in Harrisburg for a regional endorsement meeting. Corbett locked up the endorsement of his home turf southwestern caucus earlier in the week.

These regional meetings are usually the first tests of a campaign’s mettle in advance of the party endorsement meetings in February.

Technically, State Rep. Sam Rohrer is still in the race. He’s considered the underdog, especially against a man who has already won statewide office even in a very anti-Republican year. (Also, I’ve already mentioned that there’s not much historical precedent to making the leap from State Representative to Governor in Pennsylvania.) If he isn’t pulling off one hell of a surprise in advance of party meetings, then hopefully he’ll shift back to local campaign mode soon. We can’t afford to take losses at the State House.

Going back to Gerlach, he is expected to announce within the hour that he’s no longer giving up his Congressional seat. I can’t imagine that this will go over well with rising Republicans who already stepped up and put together campaigns to make sure his seat didn’t go to Democrats. Hopefully, Gerlach has plans to make up for his indecision of the last year.

More on INTERPOL Executive Order

We previously covered the Executive Order President Obama signed giving INTERPOL more freedom of operation in the US. It would appear there was a lot of bad information in initial reports. Howard Nemerov does a pretty thorough job of explaining why it’s not such a big deal.

The Growing Influence of Former Massachusetts Residents

NRA-ILA is reporting that New Hampshire is considering adding a whole lot of places you can’t carry. It’s been a long time since any state proposed restricting concealed carry. I’m thinking that the Democrats aren’t going to last long in the Granite State. New Hampshire is about as gun friendly as it gets.

By Bloomberg’s Grace

Now that new media has freed MAIG’s Blueprint for Screwing Gun Owners, his eminence the Mayor has decided to grace the public with the document, according to the Brooklyn Eagle:

The report, entitled Blueprint for Federal Action on Illegal Guns, was sent to President Obama and key members of his administration last August and is being publicly released in the New Year.

How nice of him. I guess since we already made it public, he can pretend like transparency was his plan all along. It’s amazing how much these worms argue for things like openness and transparency out of one side of their mouths, then conspire in secret when it suits them. At least until someone flips on the light switch and the cockroaches scatter.