Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- A motion for reconsideration was filed Thursday by plaintiff attorneys Alan Beck and Stephen D. Stamboulieh in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for the case of Young v. Hawaii. That case challenges Hawaii statutes regulating carry permits – and lack thereof – on Second Amendment grounds, as plaintiff George Young, denied a concealed carry permit, was also denied the right to carry openly.
A three-judge panel had ruled last July, per a Washington Examiner report, “that the Second Amendment protects the right to open carry firearms for self-defense.”
Hawaii succeeded in getting the full court to agree to hear the case, but now the Ninth Circuit has kicked the can further down the road by ordering a stay. Per a Feb. 14 order:
“En banc proceedings are stayed and submission of this case for decision by the en banc court is deferred pending the issuance of an opinion by the United States Supreme Court in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. City of New York, No. 18-280 and further order of this Court.”
“This is the second stay of proceedings in this case since Mr. Young’s case was first docketed in this Court on December 24, 2012,” Thursday’s motion observes. “Mr. Young has now been in the appeals process for approximately six years, two months and nine days.”
“Only in rare circumstances will a litigant in one cause be compelled to stand aside while a litigant in another settles the rule of law that will define the rights of both,” the motion reminds the court, citing precedent.
“NYSRPA does not directly implicate Mr. Young’s issues,” the motion asserts, noting the former case invokes “the Commerce Clause, and the constitutional right to travel,” and that “Hawaii does not prohibit that activity as New York City does.”
“[I]t is quite possible that Young’s case will be stayed for at a minimum of a year and a half, possibly more, while the Supreme Court decides NYSRPA, and it is speculation as to whether anything in NYSRPA will affect any issue presented in Young,” the motion elaborates.
Ironically, or not so much if you think about it, the same parties that petitioned the Court to hear the matter en banc oppose the motion to reconsider the order staying the case. After years of doing everything in his power to use the system for redress of grievances against a state with comparatively unlimited resources, Young wants his day in court, but the government is in no hurry to give it to him.
“We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that ‘justice too long delayed is justice denied,’” Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote in his historic “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
Justice for Young – and for all gun owners who believe unyieldingly in the right of the people to keep and bear arms – has been delayed for far too long. If it’s denied, such gun owners will be quoting Kennedy instead of King.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.