United States v. Idaho — Amicus Brief

ddavies Constitutional Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today, we filed an Amicus brief to oppose the Biden Administrations effort to use the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA)  to undermine Idaho’s “Defense of Life Act.”   We argue that the Biden Administration has been exceedingly hostile to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision and is working to circumvent it.  The HHS Secretary had no statutory authority to issue the guidance documents to require elective abortions to be performed.  We argue that the guidance documents constitute an unconstitutional usurpation of the states’ police power and exceeds federal spending power. Link to brief

Fouts v. Bonta — Amicus Brief

Jeremiah Morgan Constitutional Law, Firearms Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today, our firm filed an amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit in support of a challenge to California’s ban on billy clubs. Applying Bruen, our brief explained that billy clubs are protected by the plain text of the Second Amendment. Even if historical analogues were review, California failed to provide any relevant precedent for its ban on sticks.

Link to brief

Lake v. Hobbs — Amicus Brief in support of motion to recall mandate

Jeremiah Morgan Election Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today, we filed an amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit in support of Arizona candidates Kari Lake and Mark Finchem’s motion to recall the mandate for fraud on the court. Our amicus brief discussed the key role the judiciary plays in protecting free and fair elections. When an elected official in charge of supervising elections is then a candidate in another election, the courts must take a particularly Read More

Nguyen v. Bonta — Amicus Brief

Jeremiah Morgan Constitutional Law, Firearms Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today, our firm filed an amicus brief in an appeal in the Ninth Circuit, supporting a challenge to California’s law limiting firearm purchases to one per month. Our brief demonstrated that California’s law violates the Second Amendment by applying Bruen’s text and history test. The acquisition of firearms is clearly protected by the plain text of the Second Amendment, and the California Read More

Baird v. Bonta — Amicus Brief

Jeremiah Morgan Constitutional Law, Firearms Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today, our firm filed an amicus brief in a challenge to California’s near-complete ban on open carry of firearms. Our brief exposed how the district court rewrote the issues of the case so that it could reach its own predetermined decision, criticized and then rejected the Supreme Court’s decision in Heller and Bruen, and upheld yet another California law violating Read More

Miller v. Bonta — Amicus Brief

Jeremiah Morgan Constitutional Law, Firearms Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today, our firm filed an amicus brief in an appeal on whether California’s so-called “assault weapons” ban violates the Second Amendment. Our brief described the various ways in which California has demonstrated its hostility to the Second Amendment and the Supreme Court’s decisions. We argue that the assault weapons ban violates the Second Amendment using the Bruen test. Read More

Duncan v. Bonta — Amicus Brief

Jeremiah Morgan Constitutional Law, Firearms Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today, our firm filed its fifth amicus brief in the Duncan saga, a case challenging California’s high-capacity magazine ban. Our brief argued that the case was not properly before the en banc panel for initial hearing en banc. We showed how California has a history of hostility to the Second Amendment and the Supreme Court’s decisions on that amendment. Finally, we explain how the magazine Read More

Boland v. Bonta — Amicus Brief

Jeremiah Morgan Constitutional Law, Firearms Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today, our firm filed an amicus brief in support of a challenge to California’s “Unsafe Handgun Act.” Our brief argued that the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms also protects attendant rights, such as the right to acquire modern, state-of-the-arm firearms. We urged the Ninth Circuit that the Second Amendment does not permit balancing tests such as weighing enumerated Read More

Rhode v. Bonta — Supplemental Amicus Brief

Jeremiah Morgan Constitutional Law, Firearms Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today, our firm filed a supplemental amicus brief addressing the effect of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen on the Rhode case. Our firm previously filed an amicus brief in support of Rhode in the Ninth Circuit on August 7, 2020.

Link to supplemental amicus brief

Yukutake v. Hawaii — Supplemental Amicus Brief

Jeremiah Morgan Constitutional Law, Firearms Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today, our firm filed a supplemental amicus brief addressing the effect of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen on the Yukutake case. Our firm previously filed an amicus brief in support of Yukutake in the Ninth Circuit on May 2, 2022.

Link to supplemental amicus brief

Duncan v. Bonta — Supplemental Amicus Brief on Remand

Jeremiah Morgan Constitutional Law, Firearms Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today, we filed a supplemental amicus brief on remand, our fourth amicus brief in this case. Our brief recounted the two-step test overturned by the Supreme Court in Bruen, and put this case in the context of the various cases on remand within the Ninth Circuit since Bruen. It then explained how to apply Bruen to this case. Our brief also reminded the Ninth Circuit of Read More

Yukutake v. Hawaii — Amicus Brief

Jeremiah Morgan Constitutional Law, Firearms Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today, our firm filed an amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to help defend a decision of the district court of Hawaii striking down two state restrictions on firearms purchase. Hawaii law requires that even after obtaining a permit to purchase a specific handgun, the permit expired after 10 days, and then the firearm must be physically carried to a police station for inspection. Read More

Jewel v. NSA — Amicus Supporting Rehearing En Banc

Jeremiah Morgan Constitutional Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today, our firm filed its third amicus brief in the Jewel litigation, this time in support of a Petition for Rehearing En Banc before the Ninth Circuit. A panel of the Ninth Circuit once again ruled in support of the federal government, holding that the Jewel plaintiffs had failed to set forth sufficient evidence to establish standing and also affirming the district court’s exclusion of such Read More

Duncan v. Bonta

admin Constitutional Law, Firearms Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today, we filed an amicus brief attacking the constitutionality of a
California ban on standard capacity magazines, which the California law
mislabels as “Large Capacity Magazines.” The District Court and Ninth
Circuit panel both ruled for that the laws were unconstitutional, and
the Ninth Circuit granted rehearing en banc. Our brief defends the
decision Read More

Rhode v. Becerra

admin Constitutional Law, Firearms Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today our firm filed an amicus brief in support of a challenge to a California law which requires background checks for persons seeking to buy ammunition. Our brief explained the history of how the 9th Circuit has employed various legal tests and other techniques to allow certain judges hostile to gun rights to evade application of the Second Amendment, as written.

Link to brief

Brief: San Francisco v. Azar

admin Administrative Law, Health Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today our firm filed an amicus brief in support of a challenge to a series of district court decisions within the Ninth Circuit striking down a recent HHS regulation.  The regulation issued by the Trump Administration was designed to protect healthcare workers from being required to performing certain procedures, such as abortions, euthanasia, and sex change surgeries.

Link to brief

Duncan v. Becerra

admin Constitutional Law, Firearms Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today our firm filed an amicus brief in a challenge to a California law limiting the capacity of magazines to 10 rounds.  We explain that the two-step test used by the lower federal courts undermines the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Heller and McDonald.  And we explain that weapons useful in military service are exactly the type of weapons covered by the Second Amendment under United States v. Miller and Heller.

Link to brief

Jewel v. NSA

admin Constitutional Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today our firm filed its second amicus brief in a challenge to the most sweeping Fourth Amendment violations ever committed by the U.S. government.  (Our last brief was filed over four years ago.)  This suit seeks to stop three different mass surveillance programs operated by the federal government — programs which have seized Internet (email, internet searches, etc.) and telephone communications Read More

Young v. Hawaii

admin Constitutional Law, Firearms Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today we filed an amicus brief opposing a request for rehearing by the State of Hawaii of a Ninth Circuit decision which overturned Hawaii’s virtual ban on citizens bearing weapons.  We opposed Hawaii’s argument that its laws against carrying firearms were long-standing, explaining that those laws existed when Hawaii was a monarchy where the reigning king or queen was sovereign — Read More

Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Becerra

admin Constitutional Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today we filed another amicus brief in support of Americans for Prosperity’s challenge to the California Attorney General’s demand for its confidential donor information as a condition of raising money in the state. This brief urged the Ninth Circuit to grant rehearing en banc to reverse an earlier panel decision. The brief was filed for Citizens United, Citizens United Foundation, Free Read More

IFS v. Becerra

admin Constitutional Law, Nonprofit Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today, we filed a brief in the Ninth Circuit supporting a challenge against the California Attorney General’s demands for the large donor lists (IRS Form 990 Schedule B) of charitable organizations who wish to register to solicit donations in that state. We argued that the AG’s requirement creates a condition precedent that violates the right to peacably assemble. We also explained that the new rule does not only risk public dissemination of donor information, as has already happened in California, but also the risk that politicized Attorney Generals in New York and California — Kamala Harris, Xavier Becerra, and Eric Schneiderman — would misuse the information. We also raised the distinct possibility that the AG is committing the federal crime of solicitation of taxpayer information because it is conditioning the ability to raise funds in California on the “voluntary” provision of the confidential donor lists. Finally, we argued that 9th Circuit precedent in similar cases improperly relied on election law cases, requiring that IFS’ case be heard en banc.

Link to brief

Hawaii v. Trump

Jeremiah Morgan Constitutional Law, Statutory Construction, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today, we filed our seventh amicus brief in support of President Trump’s immigration actions, this time, in support of his September 24, 2017 Proclamation.  Our brief challenged the purported standing of the plaintiffs below, where the district court based standing on the Establishment Clause, but then granted the injunction based on statutory grounds.  Our brief argued that the question Read More

Hawaii v. Trump

admin Constitutional Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today, our firm filed its fourth brief in support of President Trump’s effort to impose immigration controls.  This brief supported President Trump’s second Executive Order issued on March 6, 2017 — to secure our borders against entry by those coming from select countries where their background cannot be checked.

Our first two briefs were filed in the Washington State challenge, in the Read More

Washington v. Trump

admin Constitutional Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today we filed a brief in support of rehearing by the Ninth Circuit en banc, of the Ninth Circuit’s motions panel denial of the Trump Administration’s motion for a stay of the Temporary Restraining Order issued by a federal district judge in Washington State enjoining operation of the President’s Executive Order on immigration and refugees.

We previously filed another brief in this Read More