SAF FILES AMICUS BRIEF IN NORDYKE CASE SEEKING 2ND AMENDMENT INCORPORATION

BELLEVUE, WA – Arguing that the Supreme Court opened the door toward incorporation of the Second Amendment in its landmark ruling in the Heller case, the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) has filed an amicus brief in the long-running case of Nordyke v. King, a challenge to the gun show ban in California’s Alameda County.

Russell Allen Nordyke had been fighting the Alameda County gun show ban on First Amendment grounds, but a ruling in the case by a district court judge opened up a Second Amendment issue. This is a critical issue for all Americans in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling that the Second Amendment protects an individual civil right to keep and bear arms.

Filing the brief on SAF’s behalf before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco is attorney Alan Gura, who successfully argued the Heller case before the high court earlier this year. Noting that “The right to bear arms clearly meets the modern incorporation standard,” Gura’s 33-page brief offers a historical Second Amendment perspective, and dismantles, step-by-step, arguments that the amendment does not apply to the states or local governments.

“It is unfathomable,” Gura writes, “that the states are constitutionally limited in their regulation of medical decisions or intimate relations…but are unrestrained in their ability to trample upon the enumerated right to arms designed to enable self-preservation.”

SAF founder Alan Gottlieb said the brief “covers every argument supporting incorporation in remarkably concise language that is well-supported by court precedent, historical documentation and just plain common sense.”

“The Heller ruling defined the Second Amendment as the founders intended,” Gottlieb stated, “and an affirmative ruling in the Nordyke case will help assure that this right properly limits state and local governments from regulating this important civil right into oblivion.”

The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nations oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 600,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. SAF has previously funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles; New Haven, CT; and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers and an amicus brief and fund for the Emerson case holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.

I think the recent study on gun shows that finds that California's heavy regulation of gun shows most likely costs lives, might be useful here, as the Nordyke case is about Alameda County outlawing gun shows.

The freerepublic thread about the study is here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2096535/posts

I am assuming that this will just percolate up through the 9th Circus, so we can only expect a favorable ruling from SCOTUS in 2010, if none of the 5 actual Americans on the court have retired and been replaced by comrade 0 (should Sarah fail to prevail)

well fellas, the ball is rollin now...perfect storm so to speak...

just in time to get massive 2A abuses incorporated by commie scum IF the bHUSSEINo makes the top...

The Lord definately works in mysterious ways...

“I am assuming that this will just percolate up through the 9th Circus, so we can only expect a favorable ruling from SCOTUS in 2010, if none of the 5 actual Americans on the court have retired and been replaced by comrade 0 (should Sarah fail to prevail)”

This case has been in the courts for nine years already. It has been to the Ninth Circuit once already, and the three judge panel to hear this filing has already been chosen.

The word that I hear is that we will have a decision on this case by July of 2009. The question is, will Alameda County appeal it, if it is in favor of incorporation?

Let me try that link to the Gun Show study thread again:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2096535/posts

“It is unfathomable that the states are constitutionally limited in their regulation of medical decisions or intimate relations, because these matters touch upon personal autonomy, but are unrestrained in their ability to trample upon the enumerated right to arms designed to enable self-preservation.

“Appellees err, profoundly, in suggesting that the Lockean bargain of living under a government includes the assignment of all individual self-defense rights to the discretion of the authorities. A bargain of this nature would recall not so much Locke, but Orwell – and it is rejected by the fabric of our legal system.”

from the SAF Amicus by Alan Gura (of Heller fame).

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