Gun Stories of the Week: Replacing Justice Scalia
TOP STORY
Replacing Scalia: Sri Srinivasan—remember the name
Replacing the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court is going to be a contentious partisan issue in the coming months. Scalia, 79, the first Italian-American to serve on the Supreme Court, died Feb. 13 after serving 30 years on the bench.
Gun rights advocates will remember Scalia for writing the majority opinion in 2008’s landmark District of Columbia v. Heller, in which the court ruled 5-4 that the Constitution protects an individual’s right to own a firearm for personal use.
“With Scalia’s death, the nine justice SCOTUS is evenly divided 4-4 on whether the Second Amendment is a individual or collective right,” writes AWR Hawkins on Breitbart.com on Feb. 14. “Scalia’s replacement will either maintain the work he did to defend these rights as individual, or will declare those individual rights as collective rights, thereby gutting the Second Amendment.”
No sooner had Scalia’s death been reported before speculation raged like a prairie fire over who would succeed him, including at least one scary prediction that Obama will choose ultra-liberal, gun control zealot Attorney General Loretta Lynch to replace Scalia.
Tom Goldstein, who runs the popular SCOTUS blog, has predicted Lynch, 56, will be the president’s “most likely candidate” for the high court. “The fact that Lynch was vetted so recently for attorney general also makes it practical for the president to nominate her in relatively short order,” he said.
John Kruzel of ABC News reported on Feb. 18 that Scalia himself suggested he be succeeded by Judge Frank Easterbrook of the U.S. Seventh Circuit. Some say this is a surprising preemptive endorsement because Easterbrook is not conservative, nor does he receive high ratings from the NRA.
According to Kruzel, while discussing his 2012 book "Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts," Scalia said he would want Easterbrook to replace him.
“If there is one other judicial name associated with the two principal theories of this book—textualism and originalism—it is Frank Easterbrook,” Scalia told on C-Span in July 2012. “If I had to pick somebody to replace me on the Supreme Court, it would be Frank."
Of course, Scalia isn’t going to be making the nomination, President Obama will be doing the honors. Here are some early candidates being tossed around by various news outlets.
Among potential nominees, ABC News speculated these U.S. Senators could get the nod: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York), 49; Sen. Amy Klobuchar, (D-Minnesota), 55; and Sen. Cory Booker (D-New Jersey), 46.
The Federalist Papers, among others, cited The New Yorker’s 2014 “Supreme Court Farm Team” as presenting the most likely candidate pool — with particular emphasis on Sri Srinivasan. They are:\
—Sri Srinivasan, U.S. Circuit Judge, District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 47.
—Paul Watford, U.S. Circuit Judge, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, 46.
—David Barron, U.S. Circuit Judge, First Circuit Court of Appeals, 46.
—Jane Kelly, U.S. Circuit Judge, Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, 49.
—Patricia Ann Millett, U.S. Circuit Judge, District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 51.
For more, go to:
— Scalia Wanted Judge Opposed by NRA to Replace Him on Supreme Court
— These Senate Democrats Seen as Possible Supreme Court Nominee
— Supreme Court Expert: This Person Is Obama’s ‘Most Likely Candidate’ to Replace Scalia
— Who Will Obama Pick To Replace Scalia? Five Top Names
— Who Will Obama Pick To Replace Scalia? Two Choices Surface
— DEATH OF JUSTICE SCALIA PUTS SUPREME COURT'S STANCE ON GUNS INTO QUESTION
— The Second Amendment without Scalia
— Scalia's death worries gun-rights advocates
— Scalia’s death provides Left opportunity to gut the 2nd Amendment
— What it means for gun rights if Scalia’s replacement is a liberal
CONVICTION BY ALLEGATION
Prosecutors call for federal law mandating accused’s firearms be seized
Prosecutors Against Gun Violence (PAGV) on Feb. 17 called on Congress to change federal laws to require increased gun surrenders in a 152-page “roadmap” to reducing domestic violence.
According to Chris Eger on Guns.com, the report recommends federal law be changed to prohibit gun possession or purchase by those under temporary restraining orders. Currently, federal law prohibits purchase or possession from those with permanent orders or domestic violence convictions, he notes.
Therefore, as Carlos Granda of KABC New Los Angeles reports, the laws on domestic abusers and guns varies from state to state. In California, there is a law to remove guns from people with a domestic violence protective order, but there are 33 states without one.
In addition, Eger writes, “The group urges prosecutors, law enforcement, and the courts to quickly identify individuals under such orders and move to have them turn over their guns as soon as possible.”
PAGV was founded in 2014 by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. and Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer. It consists of 34 leading prosecutors from every region of the country.
“But while people said there should be a consensus on the issue, they admit they don't think Congress will take it up during the election year,” Granda concludes.
For more, go to:
— A Dangerous Loophole In Federal Law Is Putting Women's Lives At Risk
— Prosecutors Against Gun Violence 152-page report
— LA CITY ATTORNEY, EXPERTS CALL FOR FEDERAL CHANGE ON GUN LAWS IN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CASES
— Prosecutor group advocates stricter laws, more gun surrenders
— Domestic violence: Gap in Idaho law let Wilder murder suspect get guns back
STATE ROUNDUP
Proposed bill would make Michigan seventh state to allow ‘Constitutional Carry’
Michigan House Republicans on Feb. 18 introduced House Bill 5304, legislation that would allow "law-abiding" citizens to carry concealed weapons without a government-issued permit.
According to the Associated Press, if the legislation garners the approval of the House and Senate and the signature of Gov. Rick Snyder, Michigan would be the seventh state to allow concealed pistols to be carried without a permit.
The others: Alaska, Arizona, Kansas, Maine, Vermont and Wyoming. Lawmakers in other states including Colorado are considering similar measures, according to the AP.
Four Michigan Republican lawmakers introduced the bill in early February to eliminate the state's permitting requirement for concealed carry licenses, reported Brad Devereaux on mlive.com.
One of those sponsors, State Rep. Triston Cole (R-Mancelona), called Michigan's current concealed pistol license permit requirement a "government over-reach."
"People who want to ensure the safety of their families against the criminal element should not have to beg for that right," Cole told Devereaux.
For more, go to:
— Gun legislation would make Michigan 7th state to allow concealed pistols with no permit
— West Virginia: No-permit, no-training concealed gun bill advances
— Idaho Second Amendment Alliance calls for open hearing on permit less carry bill
— Airport gun bill launched in Florida Senate
— Alabama: Sheriffs, police urge legislators to scrap guns-in-cars bill
— Kentucky: Supporters of two gun bills rally in Frankfort
— Georgia House committee backs 'campus carry' gun bill
— Guns on campus? Alaska Senate leaders ace Hypocrisy 101, flunk Gun Show 101
— Tenn. panel OKs campus gun bill
— Arizona: House panel advances three gun rights bills
— Mississippi bill would let church members carry guns
— Reporting stolen guns could soon be mandatory in New Orleans
NOT POLITICALLY CORRECT
American rockers: French gun laws aided, abetted Paris terrorist massacre
Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes, returning to Paris on Feb. 16 to fulfill a "sacred duty" to finish the band's set interrupted by the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks that killed 130 people, criticized France's gun control laws during an interview on French TV.
An avid gun owner and guns rights advocate, Hughes called the French people "incredibly strong and determined"—but said the country's gun laws didn't save anyone from dying that night in November.
“I’ll ask you: Did your French gun control stop a single [expletive] person from dying at the Bataclan?” Hughes asked. “And if anyone can answer yes, I’d like to hear it, because I don’t think so.”
Hughes, the California-based heavy metal band’s lead singer, said the only thing had stopped the violence was "some of the bravest men that I've ever seen in my life charging head-first into the face of death with their firearms."
For more, go to:
— ‘Did your French gun control stop a single [expletive] person from dying at the Bataclan?’
— Rock Band Returns To Paris To Finish Show; Frontman Pans France's Gun Laws
— Eagles of Death Metal's Jesse Hughes: Gun Control Failed Paris
— Eagles of Death Metal frontman: 'Everybody has to have guns'
— Eagles Of Death Metal’s Jesse Hughes discusses gun control in relation to Bataclan shooting