WI: Madison Banning Guns on City Transit Heard at Supreme Court

Gun Watch ^ | 11 September, 2016 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

In 1999, Wisconsin passed a statue which prohibited political subdivisions of the state from regulating firearms.  The statute was expanded in 2011 with the passage of the shall issue permit law, and again in 2015 when knives were included as items protected by the law.

The City of Madison political structure has been ideologically opposed to the right to keep and bear arms for decades.  It has paid out in lost lawsuits when it attempted to criminalize open carry by claiming that open carriers were "obstructing justice" and charging them with "disorderly conduct".

After Wisconsin passed the shall issue reform law, the City of Madison's Transit and Parking Commission created a rule banning weapons on the City buses.

They were sued by Wisconsin Carry, a Second Amendment activist group.  The City's argument is that the City did not pass an ordinance or a regulation, or even a resolution.  Rather, the City merely created the Transit Commission, which then created a rule.  They contend that the City is not responsible for what the Transit Commission does.

The District Court and the Appeals Court have ruled against Wisconsin Carry. Wisconsin Carry appealed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on Friday, 9 September, 2016. From courthousenews.com:

Wisconsin Carry's attorney, John Monroe, argued Friday that a state law preventing a city from regulating firearms should restrict the city from granting that authority to a commission, such as the transit commission in Madison.
While a city can grant power to a subdivision, he argued that "such power is limited to the power that the city has in the first place," and the state has not given the city power to pass weapons bans on buses.
Ryan J. Walsh from the Office of the Solicitor General argued on behalf of the state, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the gun rights group's position.
Walsh pointed out that the statute at issue was not intended to keep guns off municipal property.
"The legislature has not given cities a free pass to ban firearms on their property," he said.
But Madison assistant city attorney John Walter Strange Jr. claimed the challenged statute only restricts municipalities from enacting laws that are more strict than the state law.
The gun rights group's argument fails before it reaches that point, Strange added: the state forbids a city from passing regulations. In this case, the city's regulation stops at creating the transit commission. It is the commission that enacted the weapons ban.

 It appears that the city's argument fails a definitional test. Abraham Lincoln said in a famous quote:

How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg? Four. Saying that a tail is a leg doesn't make it a leg.

In this case, the Transit Commission is an entity created by the City of Madison.  If their argument is correct, and the city wishes to infringe on the right to keep and bear arms, (which they have abundantly demonstrated) they need only create a "weapons commission" that then passes "rules" about where weapons can be carried and how.  As the "rules" were not passed by the City, they would not be affected by the State preemption law.

Wisconsin had a clear choice in April, 2016, when voters elected Rebecca Bradley to the Supreme Court. The turnout was the highest ever for a Supreme Court race. Bradley had been appointed to the court seven months earlier by Governor Scott Walker. Bradley is a clear originalist and conservative; her opponent was unabashedly "progressive" and activist.

The Court moved further away from judicial activism when the former Chief Justice, Shirley Abrahamson, lost a lawsuit attempting to regain her position as Chief Justice.  Court members had voted for a justice to replace her, after a Constitutional amendment was passed to change the method of selection.  Chief Justice Abrahamson had been a powerful "progressive" voice on the court.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court now has a solid originalist majority.

©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Link to Gun Watch

[marktwain]

This should be a slam dunk under the Wisconsin Constitution. The people have a right to bear arms for lawful purposes.

This "rule" violates that right.

[riverrunner]

One can hope that now that we have a solid majority of so called conservative justices on the Wis. court we could get a good ruling on this.

[Fai Mao]

One can hope that this issue is the one that fractures the demondog stranglehold on the state

[BenLurkin]

I can see why the drivers might not want the riders to be firing weapons in self defense. Seeing how they will be downrange.

But the riders probably have a different take on it.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Wisconsin has made some amazing Conservative progress (hate that word, now!) in a lot of areas since electing Governor Walker, and all of the GOOD people he brought with him, such as Justice Bradley.

Of course, that NEVER stops our Enemy Media form trying to dig up the dirt on EVERY ONE OF THEM, but we seem to be gaining ground. :)

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Ah the good old days when LIBERTY was still in the land!

[umgud]

Either way, thugs will still carry on buses.

[T. P. Pole]

Alas, it also doesn’t stop many on here from saying he isn’t conservative enough, or even that he is as liberal as Hillary. He doesn’t seem to pass everyone’s purity test.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Few do. He’s a VAST improvement over ‘Diamond Jim’ Doyle, that’s for sure!

We take what we can get in this ‘Rat infested state. :)

[reaganaut]

If only they could get a poor, elderly black woman (preferably one who was assaulted on the transit) and they could claim discrimination. It is in fact discrimination against everyone who uses public transportation. If you have a car, you can have your weapon, if you have to take the bus, you are more at risk and the criminals know that.

[reaganaut]

I don’t ride public transport, but I ignore these ‘rules’ as a general principle (restaurant, etc). My family’s safety is more important than their sign.

[umgud]

Yes.

[Secret Agent Man]

Until it is nuked, Madison wil keep pulling this stupid liberal sh1t.

[Secret Agent Man]

The transit comitte is a govt agency created by the city.

It is,part of city govt. Whatever rules it comes up with are made by a city entity, or city-created entity with the force of law behind it.

Wisconsin scotus will give the proper ruling.

[Jack Hammer]

Madison has been a Leninist sh*t hole since the sixties, at least.

[marktwain]

I think it was about 1968 that the Supreme Court ruled that students had to be allowed to register and vote as residents of the city where they were going to school.

That flipped several university towns into Democrat control.

It made more sense for them to be registered where they came from, because their status as students made them temporary.