Another AG won't defend state law; this one gives NRA standing to challenge gun regulations
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Following the lead of other state attorneys general, Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane is refusing to defend a new state law.
The Pennsylvania law says membership organizations such as the National Rifle Association have standing to challenge local gun regulations, the PittsburghPost-Gazette reports. The challengers could also seek damages, according to prior coverage by the Associated Press.
The job of defending the law will instead be handled by the state’s Office of General Counsel, which acts as the state’s in-house law firm, Reuters reported earlier this month.
The law is being challenged by five Democratic lawmakers and the cities of Philadelphia, Lancaster and Pittsburgh. The suit claims the standing law violates state constitutional provisions barring bills from being changed to alter their original purpose and barring bills from containing more than one subject. The NRA standing law was tacked on to a law designed to prevent the theft of metals from businesses, the AP story says.
According to the Post-Gazette, Kane is “no maverick among attorneys general. Many others across the country also are refusing to uphold laws they deem unconstitutional, raising questions about where the line lies between discretion and dereliction of duty.”
State attorneys general have refused to defend state bans on same-sex marriage, a state immigration law, a law allowing state takeovers of failing schools, and a gun law, the Post-Gazette says.
