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From Judge Roger Benitez's decision in Fouts v. Bonta(S.D. Cal.): This case is about a California law that makes it a crime to simply possess or carry a billy. This case is not about whether California can prohibit or restrict the use or possession of a billy for unlawful purposes…. Historically, the short wooden stick that police officers once carried on their beat was known as a billy or billy club. The term remains vague today and may encompass a metal baton, a little league bat, a wooden table leg, or a broken golf club shaft, all of which are...

Two years ago, I wrote a column denouncing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s use of a counter-terrorism law to shut down the Freedom Convoy trucker protests as an authoritarian attack on free speech. Now, a Canadian court has agreed and ruled that the use of the Emergencies Act was unlawful and “unreasonable.” Despite Trudeau’s attacks on civil liberties, he remains a favorite of the media as an iconic figure on the left. Various civil liberties groups have opposed the iron-handed measures of Trudeau, including The Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Constitution Foundation. The characterization of political critics as...

Progressive historians have used their position to justify unfettered government power for decades. Professor Saul Cornell has long taken the position the Second Amendment does not mean what it says. As an example of his rhetoric, he claims government policies encouraging gun ownership are proof of the legitimacy of government authority to ban guns. Laws and regulations encouraging people to exercise their right to arms are not a persuasive argument to show they had the authority to ban the exercise of the right. From Professor Saul Cornell: Without government direction there would have been no body of Minutemen to muster...

On August 15, 2019, the San Diego Gun Owners Political Action Committee, James Miller, and others filed a lawsuit against then California Attorney General Beccera, challenging the constitutionality of the California “assault weapon” ban. As the case evolved, it became known as Miller v Bona. Here is a summation from the complaint filed on August 15, 2019:1. This is a facial and as applied constitutional challenge to California Penal Code §§ 30515(a)(2) and 30515(a)(5), California Code of Regulations § 5471, subdivs. (b), (n), and (p), and Defendants policies, practices, customs, and enforcement of said law, which define and prohibit certain...

Community “charity” fundraising company GoFundMe demonstrated they’re woke and fascist at the same time by canceling the Freedom Convoy campaign and promising to send the $9+ million raised to “approved charities.” Now, they’re scrambling to fix the PR nightmare that ensued by moving to refund all donations. The company had hoped that by dropping the news late on a Friday that they’d avoid some of the backlash. But it was quickly seized by conservatives across social media as an example of the totalitarian nature of the left. We didn’t let them oppose freedom without voicing our opinions and pushing to...

California officials are vowing to fight back after a federal judge overturned the state’s 30-year-old ban on assault weapons. In ruling the ban unconstitutional, U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez compared the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle to a Swiss Army knife, calling it “good for both home and battle.”Benitez, of the Southern District of California, issued a permanent injunction against the law’s enforcement but stayed it for 30 days to give the state a chance to appeal. California is one of seven states, plus Washington, D.C, that ban assault weapons, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

A federal judge overturned California's 32-year-old ban on so-called assault-style weapons on Friday, describing it as a "failed experiment" and prompting scathing criticism from the state's governor and attorney general. California has prohibited the sale of the weapons since 1989. The ban was challenged in a 2019 lawsuit against California's attorney general by plaintiffs including James Miller, a state resident, and the San Diego County Gun Owners, a political action committee. "This case is about what should be a muscular constitutional right and whether a state can force a gun policy choice that impinges on that right with a 30-year-old...

A federal judge has struck down California’s controversial “assault weapons” ban, ruling late on Friday that the move is "unconstitutional." “This case is not about extraordinary weapons lying at the outer limits of Second Amendment protection,” Judge Roger T. Benitez of the Southern District of California wrote.

A federal judge in San Diego on Friday overturned California’s three-decade ban on assault weapons, saying it violates the Second Amendment."Under no level of heightened scrutiny can the law survive," U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez said before issuing a permanent injunction that takes effect in 30 days. Benitez argued the state’s definition of illegal military-style rifles bans firearms allowed in other states, depriving California gun owners of their rights.He compared the AR-15 rifle to a Swiss Army knife, saying it’s "a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment. Good for both home and battle."

A federal judge has overturned California´s three-decade-old ban on assault weapons, ruling that it violates the constitutional right to bear arms. U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez of San Diego ruled Friday that the state´s definition of illegal military-style rifles unlawfully deprives law-abiding Californians of weapons commonly allowed in most other states. He handed down the two page ruling in response to a lawsuit filed against the State of California by James Miller, Patrick Russ, Ryan Peterson and the the San Diego County Gun Owners Political Action Committee. The plaintiffs successfully argued that California's use of the term 'assault weapons' was...

SAN DIEGO, CA (June 4, 2021) — Today, Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced that Judge Roger T. Benitez of the Southern District of California has issued an opinion in Miller v. Bonta (previously Miller v. Becerra), holding that California’s tyrannical ban on so-called “assault weapons” is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. The opinion, along with other filings in this case, can be viewed at AssaultWeaponLawsuit.com. In 2019, FPC developed and filed Miller v. Becerra, a federal Second Amendment challenge to California’s Assault Weapons Control Act (AWCA) ban on common semiautomatic arms with certain characteristics, including those with ammunition magazines that...

Ninth Circuit District Judge Delivers Another Superbly Written Court Order, iStock-1055138108 On 23 September 2020, Judge Roger T. Benitez issued another impressive order in a case involving the Second Amendment. A number of California residents, firearm businesses, special interest groups, foundations, and a political action committee have organized to sue California AG Xavier Becerra et al, to challenge the constitutionality of California's complex net of regulations for the ownership and use of various firearms the state deems to be “assault weapons”. The lawsuit has been winding its way through the federal legal system in the Ninth Circuit. In Miller v....

Early 20th Century police batons in Edingburg Police Centre Museum by Kim Traynor, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons One of the very few Second Amendment cases heard by the Supreme Court in the last decade was Caetano v. Massachusettes, decided March 21, 2016. The Court has held that “the Second Amendment ex-tends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding,” District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U. S. 570, 582 (2008), and that this “Second Amendment right is fully applicable to the States,” McDonald v....

U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Federal Judge Roger Benitez in San Diego, who has issued pro-Second Amendment rulings at least twice against California state statutes, was scheduled to hold an evidentiary hearing in another gun rights case Monday morning, and that is eliciting wails from gun prohibition groups. Anti-gun groups are already on the warpath against the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court. For example, the Seattle-based Alliance for Gun Responsibility is campaigning to prevent confirmation, calling Judge Barrett “a Second Amendment extremist.” Federal Judge Roger Benitez in San Diego appears to be the newest target of anti-gun...

The Second Amendment covers magazines holding more than 10 rounds, U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez says, because they are commonly used for lawful purposes. On Friday evening, a federal judge in San Diego blocked enforcement of California's ban on magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, deeming it inconsistent with the Second Amendment right to keep arms for self-defense. U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez concluded that "California's law prohibiting acquisition and possession of magazines able to hold any more than 10 rounds places a severe restriction on the core right of self-defense of the home such that it amounts to...

Secret Service agents bust a 52-year-old man wearing a bulletproof vest as he tries to get into Trump tower to see first daughter Ivanka Trump. Adames Benitez carried a forged ID and was armed with two throwing knives on Thursday evening when he arrived at the Midtown tower.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a voter-approved California law that would have forced gun owners to get rid of high-capacity ammunition magazines by this Saturday. U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez, who is based in San Diego, issued a preliminary injuction Thursday that found the law was likely unconstitutional because it prevented people from using firearms that employed “whatever common magazine size he or she judges best suits the situation.” The law would have barred people from possessing magazines containing more than 10 bullets. “The State of California’s desire to criminalize simple possession of a firearm magazine able to hold...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- A man accused of sexually abusing two young children was taken into custody less than 25 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas on Saturday, two days before his trial was set to begin in Ithaca. Ever Benites, 36, who was out on bail after being charged with multiple felonies for abusing two children over several years, was taken into custody at a travel center in Edinburg, Texas.... The final destination of the bus, operated by Tornado Bus Company, was Brownsville, Texas, a city directly bordering Mexico. Benites, who was released on $20,000 cash bail or $40,000...

A South Florida man has been charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction in Key West. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Harlem Suarez, a/k/a “Almlak Benitez,” 23, of Key West was posting extremist rhetoric on his Facebook page which promoted the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a foreign terrorist organization. That caught the attention of the FBI. The criminal complaint states Suarez told an undercover FBI informant that he wanted to make a “timer bomb.” Suarez bought galvanized nails, which were to be hidden in a backpack and remotely detonated by cell phone,...

Note: The following text is a quote: September 30, 2009 O'Hare Airport temporary staffing employees sentenced for harboring illegal aliens who were given access to secure areas Assisted illegal workers in obtaining unauthorized airport security badges CHICAGO - The owner of a Bensenville temporary employment agency and her assistant were sentenced in federal court Wednesday for harboring illegal aliens and assisting those workers in obtaining unauthorized access to secure areas at O'Hare International Airport, including the tarmac. The sentences resulted from a multi-agency federal investigation conducted in 2007 and led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Mary Gurin, 38,...