D.C. Seeks Stay of 2nd Amendment Decision

July 28th, 2014

As I noted in my earlier post, the District has formally petitioned for a stay of the ruling invalidating its ban on concealed carry. In its motion, the District stressed the chaos that would result by its scramble to accommodate the decision:

“The public interest is not served by rushed legislation on a foundational public-safety issue or by allowing any and all ‘dangerous or deadly’ concealable weapons to be carried in public, without reasonable restrictions being imposed, during the pendency of any appeal and/or new legislation,” 

Alan Gura seems amenable to a ninety-day satay.

Lawyers for the city say the gun rights activists who brought the case “do not oppose an immediate stay for 90 days.” If Scullin won’t grant a stay, the city could and likely will ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to put the ruling on hold.

Really though. What is it with district judges not staying rulings after invalidating laws. At least give the government a chance to file the appeal, and don’t force them to scramble over a weekend with this new regime. I say this as someone who agrees with the court’s ruling here.

Perhaps it would be good litigation technique for all governments, when seeking to dismiss constitutional challenges, to request in advance that the district court stay any adverse judgments. This bit Utah in its same-sex marriage litigation, and burned the United States when Judge Vinson found the Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional. At least if you ask for it in advance, you eliminate one risk that a judge will make the ruling go into effect immediately.