Kobach: The Ninth Circuit’s Gun Decision Says as Much About the Court as it Does About Firearms Rights
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KRIS W. KOBACH
17 Aug 2020
On Friday, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals handed down a
decision of immense importance. In
Duncan v. Becerra , the Court struck down California’s ban on firearm magazines of more than ten rounds, holding that the ban violated the Second Amendment.
It was a major legal battle, with the Democrat attorneys general of no less than seventeen states weighing in on California’s side in support of the ban. The NRA, the National Shooting Sports Federation, and a host of local gun groups argued against the ban.
The decision was not unanimous; it was a 2-1 vote. But for court-watchers, it was an astonishing thing to see it come from the Ninth Circuit. Six other circuits, specifically the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Seventh, and D.C. Circuits, had previously sustained large-capacity magazine (LCM) bans against Second Amendment challenges.
The two judges in the majority of the Ninth Circuit panel were Judges Kenneth Lee (a Trump appointee) and Consuelo Callahan (a George W. Bush appointee). The dissent was written by Judge Barbara Lynn, a district judge from the Northern District of Texas (appointed by Clinton), who was sitting on the Ninth Circuit panel by designation. In decisions involving politicized issues like gun control, the name of the president who appointed a judge often speaks volumes.
As has been
noted of late, the once left-leaning Ninth Circuit has changed a great deal during President Trump’s first term in office. President Trump has appointed no less than ten of the court’s 29 active-status judges. . . .
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