7th Circuit Upholds Gun Ban, Agrees with Sotomayor
Critics have called Judge Sonia Sotomayor an “anti-gun radical” for joining in a federal appeals court decision holding that U.S. Supreme Court precedent does not restrict state and local laws banning the possession of some weapons.
Now a panel of 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that includes two leading conservatives has agreed with the Supreme Court nominee, the National Law Journal reports. In an opinion issued yesterday, the Chicago-based appeals court declined to hold the Second Amendment applies to the states until the Supreme Court rules on the issue.
The ruling upheld gun control laws in Chicago and suburban Oak Park, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Judges on the panel included well-known conservatives Frank Easterbrook and Richard Posner, as well as another Republican appointee, William Bauer. Easterbrook wrote that the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year in District of Columbia v. Heller overturned a handgun ban in the federal enclave of Washington, D.C., on Second Amendment grounds, but left open the question of whether the amendment applied to the states.
The issue is “for the justices rather than a court of appeals,” Easterbrook wrote.
