Judging Freedom - Judge Blocks NY Gun Law Again

Episode Date: November 8, 2022

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Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Tuesday, November 8th, 2022, midterm election day in the United States. It's about 340 on the East Coast of the United States as I speak. Some more good news on the right to carry front. Two federal judges in New Jersey have ruled on this. Both have struck down parts of the New York state law, which attempted to find its way around the Supreme Court's ruling last June. And one of those two federal judges has ruled for a second time. So here's the background. In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that the right to own a gun and carry it in your home

was a fundamental personal liberty. It wasn't a collective liberty. It didn't belong to the community. It didn't belong to the militia. It belonged to each adult. But that was just in your home. Last June, the Supreme Court ruled that the right to carry a gun outside your home is a fundamental liberty akin in its importance and hierarchy to the freedom of speech. So the states that say you may carry now are shall carry states. This, of course, provoked fierce reaction in places like New York. One federal judge in New York preliminarily enjoined the enforcement of the New York state law because of a lot of craziness in there. Things

like you can't carry a gun in a church, at a political gathering, at a theater, at a restaurant, at a bar, at a stadium, and that the government is entitled to see your social media activity, your handles, your names, any anonymous email or Twitter or Facebook or texting names that you use. So a federal judge a month ago preliminarily enjoined that, meaning he said said to the state I'm going to stop you from enforcing this just for a couple of weeks. Yesterday at six o'clock he and joined them permanently from enforcing it. Now there's two issues here. One is he really gutted the legislation that made it very difficult for you to carry a gun. He didn't go all the way, didn't go as far as I'd like him to go, He didn't shrink. Times Square is seven square blocks in the middle of Manhattan. The New York State Legislature said you can't carry a gun in Times Square, but they expanded it to 35 square blocks, just big enough

to cover the building that my friends and former colleagues at Fox News are in. So if you have the right to carry a gun in New York City, you cannot carry your work in the Fox building. You cannot carry it to work. I think that will be shrunk down to sensibility. But all these other things, you have to have good moral character. What does the government know about good moral character? You have to give us all your social media communications for the past three years. You can't carry it in a restaurant or a bar or a gym or any of that. All that stuff is thrown out. But the most important thing is this.

When judges enjoin the government, stop the government from enforcing a law that the government has enacted, they usually put their injunction on the shelf and say, yeah, you know what, I'm enjoining you, but I'm going to stay my own order for a couple of weeks to give you time to go to the appellate court and see what the appellate court does. This judge said, no, what the state of New York has done is so profoundly unconstitutional, so directly contrary to what the Supreme Court just ruled by a six to three vote just four months ago in June, that he's enjoining an effective, permanently enjoining an effective six o'clock yesterday evening. And so far there's been no interference with that injunction by an appellate court. That's a great thing. That's a great thing for freedom. Another federal judge weighed in and signed his own injunction. He enjoined just the part that prevents people from carrying guns

into churches. He held a trial at which priests, ministers, rabbis, and imams testified saying, I want these people carrying guns in my house of worship. The police can't be there, but crazies can. He enjoined that and enjoined it permanently and enjoined it immediately. So the legislation that Governor Kathy Hochul of New York has touted that was passed by overwhelming majorities in the Democratic-controlled legislature has been gutted by a federal judge. There's a little bit more gutting to do. a Democratic-controlled legislature has been gutted by a federal judge. There's a little bit more gutting to do. But if you believe that the Second Amendment means what it says,

that the right to keep and bear arms is a fundamental liberty, it's cause for much rejoicing. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom.