Texas Attorney General Abbott Files Brief with United States Supreme Court

Texas Attorney General Abbott Files Brief with United States Supreme Court

Texas Amicus Brief Joined by 32 State Attorneys General

AUSTIN - Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court that defends Americans’ right to keep and bear arms. The amicus brief, which was filed on behalf of 33 state attorneys general, supports a legal challenge by Otis McDonald, a community activist who lives in a high-crime Chicago neighborhood. McDonald’s work to improve his neighborhood has subjected him to violent threats from drug dealers, but city ordinances prohibit him from obtaining a handgun to protect himself. The state attorneys general argue that cities cannot simply ignore the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and impose a blanket ban on handguns.

“Last year, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the District of Columbia’s handgun ban and held that the Second Amendment protects individual Americans’ right to keep and bear arms,” Attorney General Abbott said. “The brief filed today urges the nation’s highest court to hear community activist Otis McDonald’s challenge to an ordinance that prohibits him from possessing a handgun to protect himself from the criminals he has worked to eradicate from his high-crime neighborhood. Today’s amicus brief reflects an effort by more than thirty attorneys general to defend law-abiding Americans’ constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms.”

The states’ amicus brief says: “The right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment is not just a ‘fundamental’ liberty interest. In the Anglo-American tradition, it is among the most fundamental of rights because it is essential to securing all our other liberties. The Founders well understood that, without the protections afforded by the Second Amendment, all of the other rights and privileges ordinarily enjoyed by Americans would be vulnerable to governmental acts of oppression.”

According to the states’ amicus brief, the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution applies to states under the Fourteenth Amendment, and the right to keep and bear arms is a right that states have long recognized. In fact, 44 state constitutions protect their residents’ right to bear arms. The brief adds: “The submission of this amicus brief provides further evidence of the States’ understanding of the fundamental importance of the arms-bearing right guaranteed by the Second Amendment.”

“Just as local governments cannot constitutionally act as ‘laboratories’ for initiatives to abrogate their citizens’ right to free speech or their freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures, nor can they nullify the fundamental right to keep and bear arms secured by the Second Amendment,” the amicus brief states.

The states’ amicus brief acknowledges that some firearms regulations are permissible, including in circumstances where they are necessary to prevent violent felons from owning guns.

The states ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear both the McDonald case and National Rifle Association of America Inc., et al v. City of Chicago, Ill., et al.

The states that joined Texas in the amicus brief are: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Full Story Here:
Texas Attorney General Abbott Files Brief with United States Supreme Court

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a fight coming. The anti-gun cabal is at work right now, attempting to take our Second Amendment rights away from us.

The recent nomination of Sonia Sotomayor stands in testament to that fact.

Earlier this year, President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee joined an opinion with the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that Second Amendment rights do not apply to the states. SOURCE

Texas is leading in the fight, Texans are ready to take this fight as far as is necessary. Are you? I hope so because OUR rights are definitely under attack. The Second Amendment is the 1st target for the liberal left and the gun grabbers, simply because an unarmed population is an easy population to conquer.

I’ll give them MY guns, bullets 1st! Not a threat, just the fact of the matter.

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13 Responses to Texas Attorney General Abbott Files Brief with United States Supreme Court

  1. extex_cop says:

    Yep…they will get my gun after I empty it on the person(s) trying to take it away from me….or they empty theirs on me while I’m holding mine. I have worked too hard to get what I have and I damn sure want to keep it.

  2. Vigilante says:

    I’ve got your back Fred and I know quite a few more that are with us.

    How’s that cartoon go ….Here kitty kitty kitty……….

  3. Patrick Sperry says:

    Admirable attempt however, as usual, too little, and way to late IMO.

    Where do I see any mention about ex post facto law being immoral as well as blatantly un-Constitutional?

    Where do I see the taking of unalienable rights for less than insanity or felonious behavior addressed?

    Where do I see a requirement for courage from the Supreme Court..? None. There’s so much wiggle room here for the attorneys it’s pathetic.

    My take on all this can be summed up in a single phrase. First uttered from my lips outside a courtroom in Arvada Colorado;

    “Second Amendment Solutions for bureaucratic belligerence and official oppression!”

    That was in 1993. Where the hell have all you people been..?

  4. Mr Pink Eyes says:

    It is a sin against the constitution that Otis McDonald is not allowed to practice his second amendment right and that he is not allowed to defend himslef.
    I am proud to say that my state of New Hamshire is one of the states that has joined this fight. While we are moving to the left on many issues, gun ownership and the second amendment is still one of New Hampshire’s strong points.

  5. TexasFred says:

    That was in 1993. Where the hell have all you people been..?

    Patrick, I am a bit shocked by this response from someone that I have called friend for years…

    Where have you people been?? You don’t have to worry about asking that one any more…

  6. maggiesnotebook says:

    The Washington, D.C. case, flying in the face of the Supreme Court is incredible. I read this week that the smartest place in the U.S. - or the smartest brains are all in Washington, D.C. :-) Oklahoma will keep their right to bear arms.

  7. WhoBeen says:

    “…shall not be infringed.”

    I just can’t see where there should be a problem. Can’t lawyers and judges read anymore? I never did understand this… Do you think it’s me? Do I have some kind of hang-up?

    The minute any politician tries to impose some infringement on the rights of citizens they ought to be fired for just cause. Why can’t we do that? Do you think its me? Do I have some kind of hang-up?

    Under the current law, what is stopping anyone with a weapon from preventing any politician from breaking that law?
    It would be a self-defense issue at least…a citizen’s arrest at most.

    Any politician that takes the oath to uphold the Constitution has no right to violate that oath.

  8. Patrick Sperry says:

    Fred, my “you people” reference was about all these lawyers. Not the people that post here, or at CLO, etc.

    My sincere apology to any and all for not making that more explicit.

  9. Longstreet says:

    I am happy to see that both my beloved CAROLINAS are signed on to this lawsuit. But, with Sotomayor on the court, it will be “stacked” against us. From here forward, bringing any kind of firearms suit before the Supreme Court risks opening the door just enough that the “stacked” court can rule against us and squash the 2nd amendment.

    JDL

  10. Bloviating Zeppelin says:

    Molon labe.

    BZ

  11. minuteman26 says:

    Fred - Read the breif yesterday and beleive the attorneys generals will be successful. If not then the court should be hung. Law was probably passed in the first place to keep Chicago pols from getting bumped off. You can see a guy coming at with a rifle. 26

  12. TexasFred says:

    Patrick, fair enough…

  13. BobF says:

    I just got word from the NRA this morning that the Missouri Attorney General signed the Amicus Brief. I was glad to here that and am going to send him a thank you.