Fifth Circuit Clamps Down on NJ District Court in 2nd Amendment Case

AmmoLand ^ | April 6, 2022 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

The saga continues in defense of the First and Second Amendments in federal courts. On April 1, 2022, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a split decision in a three-judge panel, reversed the District Court’s decision to transfer the case to New Jersey. In a court opinion, this was a vigorous slap down against judicial bias and activism.

Defense Distributed and the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) sued the State Department for violating their First and Second Amendment rights to publish computer files on the Internet.

They reached a settlement. Various Attorney Generals filed unprecedented actions to prevent the settlement from being implemented. One of the most egregious was the New Jersey Attorney General (NJAG) Gurbir Grewal, who filed injunctions against Defense Distributed for their publishing efforts in Texas.

Defense Distributed filed suit against the NJAG. The District Court in Texas ruled against them. They appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Defense Distributed and SAF won.

The State Department joined Defense Distributed in a lawsuit against the NJAG for interference. Grewal moved to have the case dismissed, and failing that, have the case against him severed from the more general case, and moved to New Jersey, where, he would have more influence, power, and likely, a more sympathetic judge.

In the opinion issued on April 1, 2022, the Fifth Circuit slaps down both the New Jersey District Court and the Texas District court who agreed to severe Grewal’s case and move it to New Jersey. From the opinion pages 5-6:

Following our remand to the district court, Defense Distributed amended its complaint to join the State Department as a defendant for its alleged failure to comply with a Settlement Agreement reached with Defense Distributed in 2018.

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The State Department agrees to a settlement in the Defense Distributed case; Leftist state Attorney Generals work to stop it. The New Jersey AG goes over the line. Defense Distributed sues the AG, and the Fifth Circuit preserves their right to do so.

[BobL]

“They reached a settlement. Various Attorney Generals...”

Not very sophisticated. Us people with a more erudite education (and reporters) know the proper term, at least at our cocktail parties, is “Attorneys General”.

[ptsal]

Further down the the Ammoland article:

On page 30, the last page of the majority opinion: Correctly assessed, the NJAG did not carry its burden to clearly demonstrate that transfer is clearly more appropriate than the Plaintiffs’ choice of forum. The district court erred legally and factually in virtually every aspect of this issue, and its decision, which has unnecessarily lengthened this litigation even more, represents a clear abuse of discretion for which mandamus is an appropriate remedy.

The dissent, unexpectedly, disagrees, claiming the transfer of the case to a New Jersey Court, where the New Jersey AG is the defendant, is not unusual enough to warrant the extraordinary remedy of mandamus.

[muir_redwoods]

“… agreed to severe Grewal’s case and move it to New Jersey. ”

And it’s “sever” not “severe”