Is the 5th Circuit Ever Going to Give a Ruling to us on Emerson?

[Jeff Thomas]

The last I heard of this case, the rumor was that this federal appeals court would wait until after the election to announce its decision.

Well, the election is over from a standpoint of voting. Is the 5th waiting for a slow news day?

No kidding ... what is the hold up here, or is this simply business as usual?

Thanks. Regards from AZ

 

[kjm]

Don't complain! I hope they hold off at least a year or two. Use this time wisely. If we have new SC justices that are friendly, fine. If not, you'll need more ammo. Just enjoy that it has made it that far. I kinda doubt the SC will ever hear it anyway. Win or lose, Emerson will probably hover in New Orleans for some time.

 

[bookkie]

Jeff:

I'm with you, I'm tired of waiting for their opinion.... guess there is not much else that we can do but wait.

 

[Brett Bellmore]

My working assumption is that they're holding off the ruling, because they plan to rule one way or the other depending on who's going to be appointing Supreme court justices. No point in issuing a ruling that's just going to be overturned, right? (Well, of course, there IS a point to it, but only if they're committed to doing their job honestly, which they clearly aren't, or they could have ruled by now.)

To that end, they need to know who wins this fight, not just who won on election night.

 

[MADISON]

Case dismissed

I'm not sure what court is was but, a short time ago I printed into a PDF file a that the Emmerson case was dismissed.

 

[Jeff Thomas]

Brett, I'm not an attorney, but I sincerely doubt the 5th would hold off on a decision while waiting to see who would be appointing future U.S. Supreme Court Justices. This case, if appealed to the SCOTUS, will go up there before the current court changes anyway, I would assume.

And, Madison, I don't see how the 5th could simply dismiss this case without comment. They've taken an appeal from the U.S. District Court in Northern Texas. They must, I believe, either overrule that decision, or uphold it at this point.

SAF seems to have the best data on this subject so far ... see http://www.saf.org/EmersonViewOptions.html . It appears that the Spruill case may be complicating / delaying Emerson.

Regards from AZ

 

[nralife]

MADISON,

The state charges were dismissed against Emerson. The case in the 5th Circuit in New Orleans is still alive in federal court.

The Court was expected to give their decision shortly before the election. If I had to guess, I would say that they are now waiting for this election nightmare to be over with. If the Court was to deliver a really strong pro 2nd Amendment position right now, it may harden our enemies resolve to continue to fight against George Bush's victory!


Joe

 

[Jim March]

US vs. Emerson is NOT dismissed.

What went away was the state court charges against Mr. Emerson involving violence and violating a restraining order. These were not gun-related charges.

The only effect this has on US vs. Emerson is that it improves his personal credibility. He still had a valid restraining order against him when he had that gun, technically he violated that wildly unconstitutional Federal law. But now we know he never violated that restraining order or committed any acts of violence.

The charges are still pending and at a technical level, there's nothing new for the 5th Circuit to think about. But in reality, it shows why the law in question is a piece of ****. We can hope that subtly influences the justices of both the 5th Circuit and eventually, the Supremes.

Jim