From today’s majority opinion by Justice Thomas in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton: Age-verification laws like H. B. 1181 fall within States’ authority to shield children from sexually explicit content. The First Amendment leaves undisturbed States’ traditional power to prevent minors from accessing speech that is obscene from their perspective. Ginsberg v. New York (1968). […]
While legal scholarship on firearms has grown tremendously since I first started writing on the issue in the late 1980s, one topic that has never been addressed in detail in any law journal is machine guns. My new article in the Wyoming Law Review, Machine Gun History and Bibliography, aims to fill the gap. The […]
From today’s opinion in Nguyen v. Bonta, written by Judge Danielle Forrest and joined by Judges John Owens and Bridget Bade: [The] “core Second Amendment right … ‘wouldn’t mean much’ without the ability to acquire arms.” Thus, we have “consistently held that the Second Amendment … ‘protects ancillary rights necessary to the realization of the […]
From U.S. v. Thompson, decided Monday by Judge Karen Marston (E.D. Pa.): On August 12, 2004, Thompson was sentenced to eight to twenty years’ imprisonment after being convicted in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County for Attempted Murder, Aggravated Assault, Carrying Firearms without a License, and Possession of an Instrument of Crime. He […]
When shooting, especially at indoor ranges, one of the bigger concerns is hearing protection. Most firearms are loud, and shooting without some means of moderating the noise—ear plugs or muffs—is a sure path to tinnitus and hearing loss. Also helpful are sound suppressors, which reduce the decibel level of firearms’ discharges (they remain loud, but […]
From U.S. v. Allam, decided today by Fifth Circuit Judge Cory Wilson, joined by Judges James Graves and Stephen Higginson: In August 2022, Allam embarked on a road trip in his father’s SUV from his home in Brooklyn, New York. By early January 2023, he pulled into Beaumont, Texas, via a circuitous, cross-country route. By […]
From a decision by Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui (D.D.C.) in In re: Search of One Device and Two Individuals (decided last month but just released Tuesday): The videos [of the arrest] showed the defendant and [Redacted] on top of each other, falling down the stairs while being tackled by police officers. While they all were tumbling down, […]
From a decision by Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui (D.D.C.) in In re: Search of One Device and Two Individuals (decided last month but just released Tuesday): The videos [of the arrest] showed the defendant and [redacted] on top of each other, falling down the stairs while being tackled by police officers. While they all were […]
Of all the ink spilled and soundbites recorded railing into the current iteration of the Supreme Court, nothing quite epitomizes the spirit of the prevailing critique than a July cover of The New Yorker. Posed for a portrait, Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson look forward cool and defiantly, while the conservative […]
From Justice Kagan’s unanimous (and, I think, correct) opinion today in Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos: The Government of Mexico brought this lawsuit against seven American gun manufacturers. As required by a federal statute, Mexico seeks to show (among other things) that the defendant companies participated in the unlawful sale or […]