I covered the federal court ruling in Mance v. Holder in some detail last month, and if you haven’t yet had an opportunity to get up to speed on that decision it might be useful to take a moment to click over: Federal Court: Handgun Transfer Ban Unconstitutional. (That post includes the full-length ruling.)
In brief, in Mance v. Holder US District Court Judge Reed O’Connor found that the federal interstate handgun transfer ban was unconstitutional on its face–specifically, the provision that requires an out-of-state handgun purchaser to transfer the handgun through several FFLs before taking possession.
Most interestingly, Judge O’Connor found the requirement to be an unconstitutional infringement of the 2nd Amendment under both strict and intermediate scrutiny, as well as an unconstitutional infringement of the 5th Amendment under strict scrutiny.
As observed in our earlier post on the subject:
Based on its conclusion that the federal handgun transfer ban was, both facially and as applied to the facts of this case, unconstitutional under both strict scrutiny and intermediate scrutiny, the Court granted the Plaintiff’s motion for Summary Judgment (thus granting them victory without having to go to trial), and enjoined the Defendants (AG Holder and ATF(E) Director Jones) from enforcing those provisions of the federal handgun transfer ban.
As expected the federal government requested a 60-day state of his ruling.
Last week, however, this request was denied by Judge O’Connor, as reported by the Citizens Committee to Keep and Bear Arms:
The government had asked for a 60-day stay in order to decide whether to file an appeal. But Judge O’Connor ruled today that a stay is not warranted because the government could offer no other reasons for its request other than the court’s “inherent authority to manage its docket.”
I wonder what kind of ammo the ATF will ban in response to Judge O’Connor’s unfavorable ruling this time?
–-Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
NOTE: In my previous post on victory in Mance v. Holder I gave well-deserved congratulations to Attorney Alan Gura, who is led many of the great 2A victories in federal courts. I learned today that also key in this case was Texas attorney William B. “Bill” Mateja of Fish & Richardson in Dallas, who also clearly deserves similar congratulations.
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Andrew F. Branca is an MA lawyer and the author of the seminal book “The Law of Self Defense, 2nd Edition,” available at the Law of Self Defense blog (autographed copies available) and Amazon.com (paperback and Kindle). He also holds Law of Self Defense Seminars around the country, and provides free online self-defense law video lectures at the Law of Self Defense Institute and podcasts through iTunes, Stitcher, and elsewhere.
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