Law Shield reported last week on the landmark decision in Palmer v. District of Columbia, in which the District of Columbia’s ban on concealed carry outside the home was declared unconstitutional. Then, the District asked for and obtained a 90-day stay of the decision, purportedly to work out details of an acceptable carry licensing plan. Here’s what a legal source familiar with national gun litigation tells us is likely to happen next:
D.C. having gotten a 90-day stay of the Palmer decision, the District will pass New York City–style (or worse) may-issue rules for concealed-carry permits.
Our source said this is part of a plan designed by Bloomberg’s lawyers before Heller went up for cert (consideration by the Supreme Court). The strategy is simple — until the Supreme Court of the United States is reliably anti-gun, the gun prohibitionists will cut their losses by adopting the most onerous regulations possible under the decisions.
Of course, those laws will be challenged in court, but since the anti-gun jurisdictions and/or Bloomberg have nearly unlimited funds to fight challenges to restrictive new rules, they don’t care. They will take a win if they can get it, but their real play is simply to delay, because what they are really working for is much more serious.
Bloomberg’s strategy: Under no circumstances give the current Supreme Court a chance to strengthen the Heller decision and the 2nd Amendment. Then, when the Supreme Court shifts, the antis will push a ginned-up suit to let the Supreme Court overturn Heller and repeal the Second Amendment as a practical doctrine.
Our source said that to date, Bloomberg has crushed every Democrat who has defied this doctrine and supported everyone who has followed it. The strategy is just now, in the last few weeks, getting supportive air on the far-left blogs to help give cover to liberal local pols, like those in D.C., who can’t resist the local political pressure to go to the wall and fight these rulings.
So, in D.C., expect officials to create something that gives the appearance of complying with the decision, but which will take three to four years to adjudicate.
Our source said, “It isn’t merely smart on their part, it will likely work. If the Democrats take the White House again in 2016, even if the Senate is solidly in Republican hands, those Republicans can’t hold off three or more bad Supreme Court nominees in a row.”
The post The Hidden Strategy in D.C. Decision appeared first on U.S. & Texas LawShield.