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Armed American Radio’s Facebook page reports “The Second Amendment Foundation WINS again in DC. Moments ago Judge Scullin [above] denies DC request to stay and orders DC to begin issuing permits IMMEDIATELY. Judge Scullin has had enough of DC playing games and violating his orders and rulings. Another pro-rights victory!” The Second Amendment Foundation’s Alan Gottleib issued the following statement . . .

The Second Amendment Foundation is pleased that the court ruled immediately against the city and has forced them to start issuing carry permits. By now they should realize that when we say we will do everything in our legal power to force them to recognize that people have Second Amendment rights we mean it.

Before you crack open the champagne, this isn’t over. The Judge’s ruling schedules a July 7 hearing on whether to grant a long-term stay pending the city’s appeal of the May 18 decision. If the District appeals, this one could go to the Supreme Court, where the whole “may issue” misegos could be sorted once and for all. Hopefully in favor of gun rights. [h/t DrVino]

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54 COMMENTS

  1. DC will not comply with this ruling and appeal the decision. It will take years to get this sorted out.

      • Aren’t they in contempt with the judge’s ruling if they don’t comply right away ? And, if so, aren’t there penalties for them (D.C.) if they don’t ? If you or I ignore an order like this we are thrown in jail, fined or both. Why is this different with government entities ?

        • “Why is this different with government entities ?”

          Read your question to yourself out loud and I believe the answer will be apparent.

        • Government is about being in a ruling class at the expense of everyone else. They get paid not by merit, but by them forcing money out of us by gunpoint (“taxation”) and given to them. They make the rules and they enforce them. How vigorously do you expect them to enforce the rules on themselves?

        • Who’s going to be incarcerated? Govenment employees have unions and qualified immunity. Fines will be applied, no change in policy, and taxpayers won’t notice because their taxes go up anyway. The Courts do not enforce their rulings.

          Same reason Holder keeps walking freely even while under contempt of Congress.

        • IIRC, Holder was held in civil, not criminal, contempt of Congress. That’s why he was not taken into custody over being held in contempt.

        • @Chip – Oh! I thought it was criminal! That explains a lot. Thanks for the clarification and correction! Much appreciated!

          But still, it meant nothing….

        • Look up Andrew Jackson and the Trail of Tears…. and wonder which piece of the increasingly worthless U.S. Currency these “courageous” lawmakers will be put on.

      • At some point the judge could just rule all of DC’s laws against carry of a firearm unconstitutional making a defacto licence free carry zone in DC. DC would then in short order pass slightly different carry laws starting the battle over again

        • This happened last year, DC was a Constitutional Carry area for a weekend. Its why they passed their “will not issue” CHL law in like a week. Wish I could have gotten a picture of me in front Lincoln with an open carried gun.

    • My understanding is unless SCOTUS agrees to take the case, this is it, right? And SCOTUS may or may not take it and the judge may or may not allow them a stay until SCOTUS takes it up. They may just let the ruling stand. I don’t think they will take this case( they have to have te votes) unless they intend to side against DC, considering the other cases they have turned down. If DC loses this at SCOTUS they will deserve An Award from the NRA for lifetime achievement in promoting gun rights. Republicans in congress defund the solicitor general so he can’t argue the case. Slip it into an appropriations bill. We can solve this issue right now for good. Shall issue in CA and NY and NJ would break the antis. It would be game over for them.

  2. It’s like whack-a-mole with these anti’s. Just when you think it’s down, another “appeal” “stay” “review” on to another court, file an emergency “injunction”, than another and another all the way to SCOTUS and the District will spend anything in legal fees.
    How about 10million lawful gun owners show up in DC and say hello?

  3. Start at the top and start putting those who run the city in jail for contempt and see how quickly it is sorted out.
    When they see their partners in crime being hauled off….

  4. Any appeal will go to the D.C. Circuit court — the same court that held for Dick Heller in a decision that was upheld by SCOTUS. If Scullin doesn’t grant a stay, I’m thinking that the D.C. government has dug itself into a hole so deep that it can’t crawl out. To mix a metaphor, that’s what happens when the court catches you with your hand in the cookie jar.

    As far as the stay is concerned, I don’t see why Scullin would grant it. The D.C. gov has dragged it’s feet for so long that further delay would be pointless.

    • IANAL, but I would think that DC’s contemptuous attitude toward all of Scullin’s rulings would make him even less likely to give them any wiggle room, or grant a stay of a decision that is firmly grounded, and that has little chance of being overturned on appeal.

      • It sounds like good news.

        Years back a lawyer buddy of mine told me if you’re ever in front of a judge, DON’T PISS HIM (or her) OFF.

        That I WOULD regret it.

        And so far, I’ve avoided judges.

      • Chip, IAAL (retired) and I agree with you. Scullin has to be fed up by now, regardless of his rather calm judicial temperament. That’s the personal side. On the legal side, DC has had more than enough time to establish and implement a licensing scheme that doesn’t violate Scullin’s order, and it hasn’t done so. I have to believe that DC tried to play clock, failed and is out of time.

        DC has to appeal, and even if it does it probably won’t get a stay.

    • The appeal (if any) is due by June 18. Scullin briefings are mysteriously scheduled after that (june 22nd). Well, not really: the appellate court will grant a stay, or not, and this request will be moot.

    • The DC Circuit Court ain’t what it was a few years ago – remember, Reid nuked the fillibuster in order to get Obama’s appointees confirmed to that Court.

  5. So the Anti-Gun people will keep dragging this around unit it forced to go to the Supreme Court. The irony is that with the way things are going the Anti-Gun crowd may be responsible for the Courts finally ruling that our rights shall not be infringed and lead to more CCP’s.

    • I hope you’re right. My worry is that the court makeup will change drastically anti-gun if Hillary is elected.

      • That will only happen if one of the conservative justices retires or dies. The most likely candidate for replacement is Ginsberg, one of the most liberal members of the Court, although Scalia has been making some noises about retiring despite his relative youth.

        • If a republican is elected she will retire before Obama leaves. The senate should NOT confirm a nominee and force the nomination to the republican president. I doubt they will have the balls BUT they could. She’s waiting, hoping for a HIlldog victory so they can get a rea commie to replace her. With republicans on the senate if she stepped down today they would have to nominate a moderate.

  6. I am surprised that Judge Scullin acted so rapidly, but then again, the motion for stay that he denied did nothing but rehash the City’s arguments in favor of its “may issue” regime, and further argued (rather lamely in my view) that the City would be “irreparably harmed” if it were required to issue licenses to law-abiding citizens, an argument based on nothing but the utter speculation that such law-abiding citizens “may” intentionally or negligently shoot someone else, notwithstanding their clean criminal records and extensive training as required by the City, and that the City “may” have to rescinding licenses that it issued as a result of the judge’s order. [This is just a riff on the oft repeated argument, lacking in evidentiary support, that more guns will lead to more gun crime, and that therefore the City has a significant public interest in keeping guns off the street. We’ve heard this many times in California.] In any event, IMO the motion was really designed to be presented to the D.C. Circuit, suggesting that the notice of appeal will be filed sooner than later, Scullin having forced the City’s hand.

    • DC has basically been taking a dump on him with their conduct. They plain pissed off the judge with their literal contempt.

  7. He kind of looks like Mr. Rogers.

    That’s kind of apropos – I always envisioned Mr. Rogers as the kind of guy who’d go John Wayne on anyone trying to screw with the inhabitants of the Land of Make Believe…

  8. What’s in it for the judges of the DC Circuit to overturn the DC District court? Isn’t it the case that this issue of Shall-Issue must be resolved by SCOTUS? It’s not going to die quietly.

    The DC Circuit could delay, uphold or overrule. It doesn’t cost it much to delay; i.e., refuse to deal with the appeal without saying anything one way or the other. But, under these circumstances the city of DC would be compelled to issue CWPs to all comers. Years could go by with thousands of permits issued with/without incidents. What would that mean to the outcome of the ultimate case that SCOTUS takes?

    The DC Circuit could overrule the DC District whereupon the plaintiffs would appeal. If SCOTUS refuses to take the appeal there is no risk to the DC Circuit; but, conversely, this might be the case that SCOTUS decides to take. Why would the DC Circuit be optimistic that SCOTUS would uphold them in denying the 2A right to bear arms? Seems like a good way to get egg on your face if you voted to overturn the District.

    Seems like the path of least resistance for the DC Circuit would be to uphold the DC District and just pass the buck to SCOTUS. Now, there would be a Circuit split between the DC Circuit together with the 7’th Circuit against the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Circuits with the 9th pending. Why wouldn’t SCOTUS decide to make this the case it takes? Doesn’t bring in any States’ rights questions.

    SCOTUS could decide that May-Issue based on “need” doesn’t cut the Constitutional mustard. DC would be free to adopt Shall-Issue based on onerous fees and training requirements. Then, we would have Shall-Issue without any resolution of States’ rights to regulate the bearing of arms, nor any answers to the questions to of fees or training.

    The Won’t-Issue States would have to face the ghost of McDonald on States’ rights; would they really be eager to do that?

    Any Won’t-Issue States that adopts Shall-Issue would have to decide how high to set their fees and training. These decisions will be made with the shadow of a prospective National Reciprocity law. How far would they be willing to push their luck? They will have to face litigation over fees and training; and, while defending this litigation, will have to issue thousands of CWPs to residents willing to pay the price and meet the training requirement.

  9. If I were elected to congress, every bill I didn’t like I would slip a “poison pill” into that granted national reciprocity for concealed carry licenses.

  10. Immediately, or else what? Leaders in DC don’t give two sh!ts about the law, and until you start throwing them in jail they will continue not giving two sh!ts about the law.

    • Imagine how nice it would be if he could just start firing police chiefs and sheriffs who reject CCW applications for “good cause” reasons…

      • A federal judge can’t fire anybody from a state .gov. I doubt he can fire anybody at the fed level.

        What he can do is send US Marshals in to arrest anybody in contempt of his court and haul them in front of his bench. I saw this happen in WV while working in the fed building.

        If it happened here I think the joy would cause me to giggle like a little girl.

        • No they cannot fire anyone, but a citizen can take the public servant to civil court for violating their constitutional right’s. There is no immunity not even for the officers of the courts and the laws have been in place for a very long time.

  11. In Scullin’s original decision he made it quite clear that he wasn’t fooling around. He said that their CCW had to be shall issue. Then they went and ignored that part. I’ve been expecting this ruling for a while. I expect him to take whatever action is within his power to make this happen.

  12. Now as an ex NYer its time for the judge to put NYC in its place. It is after all his home field.

  13. Since when do leftists follow laws and governmental orders? In their eyes, the government only exists to oppress the people they don’t like.

  14. As posted somewhere above…
    A march on DC might yield some interesting results…how many thousands would actually show up, instead of sitting in the background waiting for something to change. The tactic seems to work for every other civil rights group. Play the victim, get t-shirts that read: Possible Future Home Invasion Victim, Future Possible Rape Victim, Future Possible Mugging Victim, Future Likely Democratic Party Policy Dis-armament of Citizens Victim – the list goes on and on…

    Set this up so we can go burn this bitch down!

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