Judge McGlynn Issues a Masterful Memorandum and Order!
In the last update, SADEC shared that the FFL-IL v. Pritzker coordinated cases and filed a writ of certiorari on the request for preliminary injunction in SCOTUS parallel with our trial on the merits in the US District Court in the Southern District of Illinois.
Today, in preparation for a Scheduling and Discovery conference in Judge McGlynn’s court next Wednesday, the judge issued a memorandum and order concerning scheduling and discovery conference. (PLEASE CLICK THE LINK AND READ IT)
In that memorandum, Judge McGlynn once again demonstrates his understanding of the issues at play, the Heller and Bruen precedents, and the proper test for violations of the second under those rulings. At the same time, he acknowledges the asinine and incompatible standard that the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals created in the Friedman case and extended to the FFL-IL case last year.
This document is, quite simply, all the questions to the test and some of the answers the plaintiffs will need to provide when hearing this case in his courtroom.
Just a couple of quotes from the order:
The Court is mindful that the Friedman/Bevis test manifestly shifts which party bears the burden to prove which arms are outside the protective reach of the Second Amendment; Bevis requires the citizen to prove that the weapons in question are protected by the Second Amendment instead of placing the burden on the Government to prove that its law banning or restricting arms is consistent with “the historical tradition that delimits the outer bounds of the right to keep and bear arms.”
Bruen at 19.
Having been captured within the Second Amendment’s gravitational pull, in order to land safely on terra firma, the Plaintiffs need only establish by the preponderance of the evidence that Arms, attachments, and/or magazines are in common use for any lawful purpose and are not otherwise dangerous and unusual. If they are able to establish all of the above, the Plaintiffs will have met their burden to prove that the ban of specific items in PICA violates their Second Amendment rights.
In an emergent situation, the accuracy, safety, ease-of-use, and magazine capacity of an individual defense weapon may literally be the difference between life and death of the civilian and his or her family members.
Thus, while both members of the military and civilians may be called upon to engage in mortal combat, the civilian is often an “army of one” with no backup, no support, and no reinforcements at the moment when the attack occurs. The life and death stakes mandate that their firearms have both lethal capabilities and give, at a minimum, our citizens a fighting chance. (Emphasis mine)
If you read the entire document, many more positive signals indicate that if the FFL-IL and cooperating attorneys do their part, we can expect Judge McGlynn to rule PICA unconstitutional.
Such a ruling will surely lead to another appellate court appearance and another round of legal bills. We have only gotten this far because of your support. With two legal engagements on two fronts, SADEC has been disbursing your donations faster than ever!
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