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On Wednesday, a Trump judge in Kansas ruled that the Second Amendment invalidates criminal charges against a defendant charged with illegally possessing a machine gun. The case is United States v. Morgan.
Judge John Broomes’s decision in Morgan is obviously wrong, even under the Supreme Court’s most aggressively pro-gun opinion, which Broomes relied on heavily.
The Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022) cast a cloud of uncertainty over nearly all US gun laws, requiring the government’s lawyers to prove that any gun law challenged in court is consistent with “this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.” Judges across the country have struggled to interpret and apply that vague standard, and many of them have openly complained that Bruen is unworkable in their published opinions.
Read in isolation, Bruen’s vague “historical tradition” test might be read to support Broomes’s decision. But Bruen left in place a previous […]
This decision is clearly in error. Even using the logic employed by Scalia it will not withstand scrutiny. It is always the case that redicals on both sides will continue to push the envelope until stopped by hard limits.