SAN DIEGO, CA (December 5, 2022) – The Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced that United States District Judge Roger Benitez issued an order determining that it can continue with its lawsuit challenging the provisions in California SB 1327 designed to suppress legitimate challenges to firearms regulations. The order in Miller v. Bonta (Miller II) can be viewed at FPCLegal.org.
“The Defendant Attorney General says that his cessation of enforcement in a seeming case of tit-for-tat will end if, and when, a purportedly similar one-sided fee-shifting Texas statute is adjudged to be constitutional,” Judge Benitez wrote in his order. “Certainly, that condition may or may not occur. In the meantime, the statute remains on California’s books. And the actual chilling effect on these Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights remains. Therefore, the case is not moot.”
“The American court system and its forum for peacefully resolving disputes is the envy of the world,” he went on to write. “One might question the wisdom of a state law that dissuades gun owners from using the courts to peacefully resolve disagreements over the constitutionality of state laws.”
“The unilateral fee-shifting provision of SB 1327 is complete partisan malarky enacted by lawmakers who touted its very unconstitutionality before putting it in place,” said FPC Director of Legal Operations Bill Sack. “We are thrilled with the judge’s determination that the state of California can be held accountable. They made this mess, now they will have to sit in it.”
Miller II is scheduled for a trial on the merits on December 16th.
FPC is joined in this lawsuit by the San Diego County Gun Owners PAC (SDCGO); the California Gun Rights Foundation (CGF), and the Second Amendment Foundation.
