The Ninth Circuit Dance

9th Circuit Court: Gun Store COVID Shutdowns Violated Constitution

Using COVID as the excuse, the County of Ventura closes gun stores and ranges. They get sued in Federal Court. The lower court sides with Ventura County. It gets appealed. A three judge panel finds the actions taken by Ventura unconstitutional in a 3-0 split. Two judges claim the Second Amendment takes some actions off the table. These being among them, and so strict scrutiny should apply. A request for an en blanc hearing will be made and the en blanc court will find the lower court was correct because we have no Second Amendment rights the the ninth Circuit is bound to respect. Then, it will be off to the Surpemes...maybe. I'm getting tired of this shit. The case is McDougall v. County of Ventura.

UPDATE: #-0 not 2-1. All agreed it was unconstitutional. The level of scrutiny was debated.

In March 2020, Ventura County, Calif. officials ordered gun stores and firing ranges to close for 48 days to fight COVID-19. But the order allowed other places, like bicycle shops, to stay open. A Second Amendment violation? Ninth Circuit: First, the 1905 case Jacobson v. Massachusetts doesn't apply. Second, strict scrutiny does apply and the County fails it. Concurrence: Could have decided this under intermediate scrutiny. Other concurrence (by the judge who authored the majority opinion): My colleagues are awful. They'll probably reverse this en banc, and to "get a jump-start" I've written this draft of what they'll say. "Sort of a win-win for everyone." (Ed.: Click here for a probing look at Jacobson.)