Two California residents, along with two Second Amendment advocacy organizations, filed a petition with the Supreme Court to review the Ninth Circuit court’s decision to maintain the state’s 10-day waiting period laws on purchasing firearms.
Three years ago, Federal District Judge Anthony Ishii, a Clinton appointee, said the waiting period laws were unconstitutional.
However, in 2016 the U.S. Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit ruled that when a person legally carrying a concealed handgun purchases another firearm and passes a further background check, he must be “cooled off” for an additional 10 days prior to taking possession of a legal firearm.
The petition — written by Supreme Court and appellate Washington, D.C., attorney Erik. S. Jaffe — states that it “is no secret that various lower courts, and the Ninth Circuit especially, are engaged in systematic resistance to” the high court’s landmark Heller and McDonald decisions.
The petitioners claim, the Ninth Circuit ignored key legal rules that govern how infringements on constitutional rights are to be examined.
“I passed a rigorous state and federal background check and have a license to carry a handgun in public throughout the State of California,” individual plaintiff Jeffrey Silvester said. “The DOJ knows that I am a law-abiding person, and I’m even in their Rap Back system. What possible reason does the State have in denying me my Second Amendment right to take possession of a firearm after I pass yet another background check?”
Brandon Combs, an individual plaintiff in the case and executive director of organizational plaintiff The Calguns Foundation, believes fundamental Second Amendment rights are being treated like second-class rights.
“In its decision to ignore the trial court’s Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law as well as longstanding principles of appellate review,” said Combs, “the Ninth Circuit has made it crystal clear that it has no intention of following the Supreme Court’s precedents no matter how unconstitutional, arbitrary, or irrational the law. This case and the Ninth Circuit’s treatment of fundamental rights are beyond ripe for review.”
Silvester, Combs, and The Calguns Foundation are participated in the petition by Second Amendment Foundation of Bellevue, WA, which also helped fund the case.
