On October 25, I reported for MRCTV that New York-located Federal District Court Judge Glenn A. Suddaby struck down many of the provisions contained in the Orwellian, multi-pronged, Hochul-backed “Concealed Carry Improvement Act” - a statute that, somehow, “improves” Natural Rights by letting politicians attack them.
At the time, Suddaby ruled on a Gun Owners of America and Gun Owners Foundation (GOF)-assisted suit called Van Antonyuk; et al v. Hochul, Bruen, et al, State of NY, blocking enforcement of some, but not all, of the statute. He cited as unconstitutional the CCIA’s vague and arbitrary “good moral character” clause, which allowed the state to determine whether applicants for concealed carry permits had sufficient “good moral character” to get permission to exercise their inherent rights. Suddaby also blocked a provision of the CCIA requiring applicants to provide info on anyone living with them.
But he allowed to stand the ambiguous “Other Such Information Required” provision to get a gun permission slip (a provision that potentially is infinite, and an insult to the right to keep and bear arms); he allowed a provision mandating 16 hours of expensive classroom training and two stints of live-fire training (done only in state-approved facilities), and did not strike down or block all of the ban on gun-carry in places of religious worship (he only allowed gun possession for those “working” in such places).
Related: Fed Judge Blocks Enforcement of NY State Ban On Guns In Houses of Worship | MRCTV
Now, evidently, one can sus that Judge Suddaby’s decision to leave untouched some of those CCIA provisions was too “harsh," in the eyes of a three-judge panel of the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and they have decided to “block” his “block.”
Cam Edwards Wednesday wrote for Bearing Arms that on November 15:
“…the Second Circuit Court of Appeals stayed Suddaby’s ruling, which means the CCIA is once again in effect, at least temporarily.”
Circuit Court Judges Robert D Sack (appointed by Bill Cinton), Richard C. Wesley (appointed by George W. Bush), Joseph F. Bianco (appointed by Donald Trump) ruled to let stand the slick, rights-crushing New York statute, itself a response to the June Supreme Court “NY Rifle and Pistol Assoc v. Bruen” ruling invalidated a previous New York law demanding that people get permits to carry handguns outside the home.
So, the Second Cirtuit panel will not block the CCIA. But the fight goes on.
As I noted in my October 25 piece, another lawsuit is moving through the courts, and right now, in the case, “Hardaway, Boyd, Firearms Coalition, Second Amendment Foundation v. Nigrelli, Seaman, and Flynn,” Judge John L. Sinatra, Jr. has ruled that the CCIA’s restriction on the right to keep and bear arms when visiting a house of worship -- is unconstitutional and represents an unquestionable “irreparable harm,” triggering Sinatra to issue an injunction to block that aspect of CCIA enforcement.
So, as Cam Edwards notes, the judicial status of the CCIA is more than in flux, it’s got multiple strains that are in flux, and the confusion for New York residents will continue, likely until this statute is defied in oral argument before the US Supreme Court.
“The bottom line is that things are still very much in flux in New York, but as (Erich) Pratt (Senior VP of Gun Owners of America) pointed out, we’re working our way back to the Supreme Court, where hopefully justices will deliver the legal smackdown that New York deserves. I think justice will ultimately be done here, but a right delayed is a right denied, and relief can’t come soon enough for the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers whose rights are being denied them by the prohibitionist politicians in Albany.”
It sure is great to see how intensely collectivist politicians respect both their oath to protect and defend the US Constitution (and their state constitution, which also prohibits infringement of the right to keep and bear arms) and how much they care about the deeper fundamental right, itself.
And the fulcrum on which your rights balance, the plank on which they walk, is the whim of politically appointed judges, from the lower courts to the Supreme.
That serves as a powerful reminder that our rights aren’t “insured” by government. They are threatened by it – always.
Related: The Latest: Judge Strikes Down Most of NY Gov. Hochul’s Concealed Carry Gun Bans | MRCTV
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