Attorneys representing the Second Amendment Foundation and its partners in parallel cases challenging California’s ban on gun shows held on public property have filed an emergency application with the U.S Supreme Court asking that a Ninth Circuit Court mandate be recalled, and a stay be issued pending an appeal to the high court later this year.
The cases involve two sets of plaintiffs. A legal action in the Southern District in San Diego involves SAF, B&L Productions/Crossroads of the West, Barry Bardack, Ronald J. Diaz, Sr., John Dupree, Christopher Irick, Robert Solis, Lawrence Michael Walsh, Captain Jon’s Lockers, L.A.X. Firing Range/LAX Ammo, California Rifle & Pistol Association (CRPA), and South Bay Rod and Gun Club.
In the Central California case, SAF is joined by B&L Productions/Crossroads of the West, Gerald Clark, Eric Johnson, Chad Littrell, Jan Steven Merson, CRPA, the Asian Pacific American Gun Owners Association and the Second Amendment Law Center. They are represented by attorneys C.D. Michel, Anna M. Barvir and Tiffany D. Cheuvront at Michel & Associates in Long Beach, and Donald Kilmer at Kilmer Law Offices in Caldwell, Idaho.
The emergency application was submitted to Associate Justice Elena Kagan. The goal is to have an order by the Ninth Circuit’s three-judge panel allowing the gun show ban to be enforced to be recalled, and in its place to have a stay granted, pending a request for certiorari to the high court.
“The state already agreed to a stay,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “but the Ninth Circuit panel issued its order anyway. This case involves serious First and Second Amendment issues.”
The petition notes, “The business model of gun shows is a case study in exercising rights under the First and Second Amendments, and the operative complaint contains ample, legally sufficient allegations of California’s animus toward Applicants and their activities…The Ninth Circuit’s refusal to even address Applicants’ animus claim is inconsistent with this Court’s precedents and warrants certiorari.”
“We would very much like this case to move forward with as little drama as possible,” Gottlieb said, “but the Ninth Circuit’s actions are making that difficult.”
