| Bean case goes before high court |
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At stake is Vidor resident Tommy Bean's right to own and possess firearms.
WASHINGTON - From a block away the inscription above the main entrance, "Equal Justice Under Law," distinguishes the Supreme Court building from the dozens of other imposing white edifices on Capitol Hill.
Parties in fewer than 200 cases each year walk up the 34 steps from First Street and under that inscription for oral arguments before the nation's highest court.
This morning, Vidor residents Tommy Bean and Larry C. Hunter will join that elite company. Though a rare opportunity, it's one they would have preferred passed them by.
At stake is Bean's right to own and possess firearms. The 63-year-old, who is part owner of a used car dealership in Port Arthur, had his right to own guns restored by a federal district judge in 2000 after a felony conviction in Mexico for accidentally taking 206 bullets across the border.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision in 2001. However, the U.S. Solicitor General appealed to the Supreme Court contending that district judges do not have the authority to restore gun rights to convicted felons.
The Supreme Court's decision will determine if Bean can continue to pursue his love of hunting with firearms. In 1998 and 1999 before his gun rights were restored he used an old-fashioned black powder rifle instead.
Hunter, 50, a Vidor lawyer, has represented his hunting buddy Bean from 1998 efforts to have him freed from Mexican prisons through his gun rights case. Hunter will be at the counsel table today in his first appearance before the Supreme Court. But he plans to leave the 30 minutes reserved for Bean's argument to co-counsel Thomas Goldstein of Washington, who has experience before the court.
Earlier this year, lawyers for both parties submitted legal briefs summarizing the background, their legal arguments and prior decisions in support. The briefs follow the strict guidelines of the court including color-coded bindings - light blue for the first brief of the Solicitor General, the petitioner, with yellow for the reply brief, light red for Bean as respondent, light green for the Violence Policy Center brief supporting the Solicitor General and dark green for the briefs of the Law Enforcement Alliance of America and the Second Amendment Foundation supporting Bean.
From 10 to 11 a.m. today, lawyers will get their final chance to convince the nine justices of their reasoning as Bean, his wife, his daughter and her husband look on.
By June, the court will make a decision.
Bean, a native of Newton County near Bleakwood, said this past week that hunting and fishing have been part of his life since childhood even though his father and brother were not interested. A 9-point trophy from a deer-hunting trip near Alpine adorns his office wall. A week ago Sunday, he went dove hunting.
Before his 1998 conviction, Bean said, Mexico was one of his favorite hunting destinations. Now it would take handcuffs and a couple of strong men to drag him back.
Bean was a federally licensed firearm dealer in Laredo for a gun show in March 1998. He and three men working with him planned to cross the border for dinner, but in clearing Bean's Suburban of guns and ammunition overlooked five boxes of bullets.
Bean spent more than five months jailed in Mexico before being transferred to a U.S. prison. The penalty for the offense he was convicted of has since been reduced to the equivalent of a misdemeanor.
Bean said he does not understand government arguments that allowing a judge to restore his gun rights would set a dangerous precedent. "It would be on a foreign conviction," he said. "I'm just a country boy that's got a high school education. All I want to do is be able to hunt."
Reach this reporter at:
(409) 833-3311 ext. 425
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Tommy Bean 