Heller having far reaching results already

J

jimpeel

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The good news is that the cities of Morton Grove, IL and Wilmette, IL have decides to repeal the ban in MG and Willmette is suspending any further enforcement.

From the Volokh Conspiracy:

http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_06_29-2008_07_05.shtml#1214788657

The First Dominos Fall: Morton Grove and Wilmette Handgun Bans After the D.C. city council banned handguns in 1976, and the voters of Massachusetts overwhelmingly rejected a handgun ban initiative that same year, the next U.S. jurisdiction to enact a handgun ban was the Chicago suburb of Morton Grove, in 1981. Chicago did the same in 1982, and four other Chicago suburbs, including Wilmette, later followed suit.

The Mayor of Morton Grove has announced that he will propose repeal of the handgun ban. [Note that the linked NPR story misspells the name of Second Amendment attorney Stephen Halbrook.] Wilmette, meanwhile, has suspended enforcement of its handgun ban. [HT Snowflakes in Hell.]

Both Morton Grove and Wilmette were among the cities sued on Friday by the NRA. Their decisions are sensible. While the issue of Second Amendment incorporation is still unresolved, Richard Daley's government in Chicago can spend its own funds to fight the issue all the way to the Supreme Court. If Daley wins, the suburbs can re-institute their bans. If Daley loses (an outcome that seems more likely than not if the Supreme Court takes the case), then Wilmette and Morton Grove have saved themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars of attorneys fees, since they would have to pay their own lawyers, and have to pay the plaintiffs' lawyers for bringing a successful civil rights claim.

Morton Grove was the site of perhaps the worst legal defeat for the Second Amendment in American history. The lawsuit against the ban lost 2-1 in the Seventh Circuit, and then 4-3 in the Illinois Supreme Court (notwithstanding specific legislative history from the 1966 Illinois constitutional convention that the right to arms provision would prevent handgun bans). The U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in the federal case. Attorneys Stephen Halbrook and Don Kates were closely involved in the Morton Grove litigation.

In Heller, the Morton Grove cases were the strongest precedents which plainly supported the constitutionality of a complete handgun ban, even under an individual right to arms.

Ironically, Morton Grove proved very helpful to pro-Second Amendment forces in other states. The case received much national attention, and Morton Grove's ban was the key example used by NRA lobbyists to promote state preemption laws all over the country in the 1980s. These state laws eliminated or restricted many local gun controls, and always outlawed local handgun bans. The preemption laws were important in stopping the spread of local handgun prohibition. As a result, when the time came for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Heller, handgun bans remained freakish exceptions to the national norm.

It is very pleasing to see constitutional rights being re-established in the site of one of their most notorious defeats.

27 Comments
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Judging from the lawsuits filed by Gura and the NRA, Morton Grove and Wilmette have read Heller and determined they would lose... After spending huge sums of money to defend against the NRA suit. They have decided not to take that risk.

By repealing the ban, Morton Grove moots the case against them, that the NRA has filed. Wilmette on the other hand is merely suspending enforcement. It remains to be seen if this moots their case (but I don't believe it will - they will have to repeal their ban to do so).

Regardless, Chicago has already intimated that they will fight this tooth and nail.
 
Regardless, Chicago has already intimated that they will fight this tooth and nail.


Even if Chicago loses, as DC did, they will now have DC's new example of how to flip off the courts and keep the restrictions on handguns so tight as to virtually keep them banned. Who's going to want to go through all of the hassles and hurdles that DC has now erected with their "new" regulations? Ptwweeeeee. I fart in their general direction. I spit in their ice cream sundaes. I throw dog poop on their shoes!

Heller has had some far reaching effects with respect to Morton Grove and Wilmette. However, after reading through the new laws that DC has come up with, the effects of Heller on those yahoos seems to be minimal at best. They are daring people to sue them again. But, they know it takes time, money, and aggravation, to bring a suit against them. They are stalling by flouting the law. Maybe their stalling strategy and tactics are in hopes of eventually getting a more friendly USSC which will favor gun control and perhaps even overturn Heller at some point in time. Heller has to be the new litmus test for ALL judges appointed to the federal bench. Just as the liberals have made Roe vs. Wade their litmus test. If a judge cannot read the second amendment with all of the history behind it, including the writings of the framers, and come away believing it protects, not grants, and individual, inalienable right, then they are not qualified to be a federal judge, ruling on constitutional issues, IMO.
 
USAFNoDak said:
Even if Chicago loses, as DC did, they will now have DC's new example of how to flip off the courts and keep the restrictions on handguns so tight as to virtually keep them banned.
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Then, you don't believe that the mess in D.C. will get fast-tracked?

With the affirmation of the D.C. Circuit ruling, don't be too surprised if a slap-down comes, um, unlooked for. The right case, and it could be a matter of months, instead of years. And this is assuming that the SCOTUS doesn't get directly involved. Unusual perhaps, but not unheard of.

I dare say that Chicago might be in for a big surprise, if it goes this way.
 
Fenty, et al, are practically taunting the court with their arrogance, and I'm glad, because it will give the court all the motivation it needs for a swift and fatal blow to these insolent elitists.

They are shooting at the moon with their "emergency legislation"; trying to raise the bar to influence how the rest of the country will respond and interpret this decision.

But Heller is an obstruction firmly plugging their muzzle. We know how that always ends.

I'm getting the popcorn ready, you can't buy entertainment this good at any price". ;)
 
I hope that Antipitas and Maestro Pistolero are right. I'd like nothing better than to see this get wrapped up in a right-quick fashion. I'm just wondering why DC would invite such a response, if they didn't think they could stall and wiggle, while maintaining their new ''virtual" ban? I know that "technically" the Court of Appeals for the district, the USSC, or the congress could step in at any time and slap down Fenty and his band of reknown. But WILL that happen? I'm not holding my breath.

Technically, the Vikings could get to the Super Bowl. I don't see that happening anytime soon either. :o
 
The anti-gunners will react to Heller the same way the segregationists reacted to Brown vs. Board of Education-they will seek to defy, "to stand in the door", circumvent, re-interpret, etc., etc., etc. Our plan must be Repeal
and Replace. Repeal anti-gun and anti-RKBA laws, replace them with ones that uphold the 2nd Amendment. A Professor of Constitutional Law I studied under said that when the Supreme Court strikes down a law lightning does not come down to vaporize it, it remains on the books, it must be repealed
properly.
 
I thnk Fenty is doing a Ray Nagin. Despite losing in court multiple times I don't believe the guns illegally seized have all been returned or the owners compensated.

It is outrageous that the Mayor of the US Capitol should have such disdain for the rule of law, but the SCOTUS brief likely did not contemplate such arrogance. The precedent it sets with any other decision by SCOTUS should be worrisome to all the justices...who in fact is minding the store here.

Another mayor could take the same atttitude toward abortion and make the process 10 months long...

This is the problem with people who expect to be able to break law when they want to but expect that others will not. When everybody starts making it up as they go along it gets messy but since everyone has precedent to fall back on, not too much can be done too fast to get everybody back in line...

Another reason to keep and bear arms...
 
Mayor Daily (of Chicago) and his crowd are more lawless than most felons. It was his crowd that illegally plowed up one of the most useful and economically viable smaller airports in the country during the night using road building equipment. While in clear violation of federal agreements, he figured he would first do the deed (destroy the runways) and then worry about the law afterwards. As a pilot, I suppose I have a biased view, but I don't think I have my facts wrong. Like his dad, he's a crook.
 
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