According to Matt at Stop the Bleating!, the D.C. Circuit dismissed an NRA-supported challenge to the D.C. gun laws. The good news is that the dismissal was procedural; the court held that the appellants didn’t have standing unless there was an imminent threat of prosecution. The reasoning seems a little stretched, applying a different standard for justiciability for the Second Amendment than the First (see Circuit Judge Santelle’s dissent), so perhaps an appeal would help.
Unfortunately a post-prosecution challenge would be in D.C. Court, which has previously held that, “District of Columbia firearms statutes did not violate defendant’s constitutional right to keep and bear arms.” Sandidge v. U.S., 520 A.2d 1057 (1987). So even if one of the claimants was willing to get arrested, it wouldn’t help.
As a poor little 1L, I’m not sure where one could go from here (en banc review?), but the decision doesn’t bode well for me ever moving into the District.
Yours truly,
Mr. X
…bearing bad tidings…
