https://gunowners.org/ninth-circuit-must-stop-the-broadside-attack-on-the-second-amendment/Written by Jordan Stein Published: 11 August 2020
August 11, 2020
For immediate release
Ninth Circuit Must Stop the “Broadside Attack” on the Second Amendment
Springfield, VA – Gun Owners of America (GOA) and Gun Owners Foundation (GOF) have submitted an amicus brief, in Rhode vs Becerra, in conjunction with several pro-gun groups — including the Virginia Citizens Defense League, Grass Roots North Carolina, Tennessee Firearms Association, BamaCarry, Inc., Florida Carry, Inc., Arizona Citizens Defense League, and New Jersey Second Amendment Society. The brief urges the Ninth Circuit to rule by the Constitution, and not a judge’s personal opinion.
Chiefly, this brief challenges the “two step test” that has been erroneously applied to the Second Amendment in numerous cases by the Ninth Circuit and other courts.
“[T]he Ninth Circuit utilizes what is often called the ‘two-step test,’ designed by judges in other circuits, vesting broad discretion in courts to circumvent the right to keep and bear arms,” the brief states. “In the end, this Court’s two-step test is legal mumbo jumbo, an absurdly complicated framework that no one really understands, and which permits judges to ‘run roughshod over constitutionally protected rights.’”
The brief concludes by challenging the Court to rule by the Constitution, and not a judge’s personal interpretation by stating, “‘Constitutional rights are enshrined with the scope they were understood to have when the people adopted them, whether or not future legislatures or (yes) even future judges think that scope too broad.’ Heller at 634-5. It is time for this Court to stop its broadside attack on Second Amendment rights, the personal views of federal judges notwithstanding.”
The brief can be viewed in full here.
GOA spokespeople are available for interviews. Gun Owners of America, and its sister organization Gun Owners Foundation, are nonprofits dedicated to protecting the right to keep and bear arms without compromise. For more information, visit GOA’s Press Center.
— GOA —
