Posted on 03/20/2007 9:41:22 AM PDT by Revtwo
A New Jersey Superior Court has recognized the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and held that a citizen’s Constitutional Right to Keep and Bear Arms cannot be involuntarily waived under a New Jersey firearms forfeiture law.
“The recognition of Second Amendment rights in New Jersey is long overdue,” said attorney Evan F. Nappen, whose law firm (including Richard V. Gilbert, Esq. and Louis P. Nappen, Esq.) represented appellant Dennis W. Peterson in the Warren County case. “In this appeal, the Second Amendment was applied to New Jersey via the Constitutional doctrine of fundamental fairness, overcoming a significant legal hurdle needed for the Federal Bill of Rights to apply to the State.”
This decision coincides with the recent Parker v. District of Columbia case, in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia struck down a decades-old handgun ban in Washington, D.C. on the ground that it violates the Second Amendment.
“The legal significance of the Second Amendment is finally being recognized by American courts,” Nappen continued, “and this New Jersey case is part of a growing trend in American jurisprudence.”
(Excerpt) Read more at evannappen.com ...
Thank goodness. My NRA $$ is paying off.
The beat goes on.
Wow, two courts in about a week actually recognizing the Constitution. Maybe there's hope after all.
WOW, a New Jersey judge up-holds 2nd Amendment. What's next?
added the banglist keyword so the list can find it.
But not in the D.C. case, which the N.R.A. would have nothing to do with.
I think that's a mischaracterization. They have always supported lifting the onerous gun control laws in DC.
More socialist wailing and scheming.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
"I think that's a mischaracterization"
You are right, it was a mischaracterization for me to say the N.R.A. would have nothing to do with the D.C. case. They actually opposed it.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1803404/posts
The scope is very small, but the precedent is huge. The guy voluntarily relinquished firearms he had had on him during a domestic dispute. Four years later, NJ wrote a law denying the right to own a gun to anyone who had previously had a gun siezed or voluntarily relinquished a gun.
The immediate crisis is sort of an ex post facto: a man was denied his rights for an action he committed before the law depriving of his rights was written. Hence, the tiny scope: The NJ law isn't necessarily unconstitutional, since NJ may have a valid reason for its deprivation of rights. But what is huge is the courts recogniztion that the NJ deprives people of an actual right: to bear arms.
Whether a particular Republican President is as pristinely conservative as would be desired is not nearly as important as who they get confirmed to the USSC.
The fact that the USSC is decidedly more conservative than when Dubya entered office sends a message to lower courts, and we are seeing their response to that message in these recent decisions.
Dubya has disappointed me in many ways, but Presidents are in power for eight years at most.
Judges are in power for life.
Suddenly I feel faint.
More socialist wailing and scheming.
OOOOH! Good! This should be fun. I'll bring the chips. Who's got the cheese tray? LOL
ping
Mr. Nappen is a treasure for us NJ residents. If not for his hard work and dilligence, we'd be disarmed state-wide by now. Given the current state of our elected officials, it's amazing this ruling has been rendered. Thank you Evan!
First, Washington DC and now New Jersy.
[Has a massive dose of sanity been released on our courts????]
Libs will go into meltdown.
The NRA wants to get the most important gun rights issues before the SCOTUS after one of the other libs croaks. It is a strategy, but they certainly have lobbied forever to kill the DC gun control regime.
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