Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Supreme Court Makes UNEXPECTED Move that has MAGA Totally Pissed Off

Episode Date: December 18, 2023

The United States Supreme Court, for now, has ALLOWED AN ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN to remain in place as it refused to hear the case on appeal. Michael Popok of Legal AF explains what happens next across the country and the record mass shooting epidemic now that the Illinois statute remains in place, and whether the Supremes are likely to change their mind in the near future. Thanks to Quip! Go to getquip.com/MEIDAS and you’ll get 20% off any water flosser, electric toothbrush, and mint & gum dispenser. Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We now have an answer as to whether the US Supreme Court is going to intervene and do something about the epidemic of mass shootings in America. We have our first ruling ever by the US Supreme Court on whether they will give the thumbs up or thumbs down at least at the preliminary stage to an assault weapons ban, a ban on high capacity magazines and other lethal ammunition that was passed in Illinois. It's the only ruling of its kind. It's the only ruling that applies to this type of weaponry versus the second amendment right that the US Supreme Court expanded considerably last summer in one of their decisions.

So you have that tension between the Second Amendment right and the limits on the ability to regulate. And now you have what is the US Supreme Court think about assault weapons, high capacity magazines, and other instruments of primarily of the military, not of civilian use, and what is their position on it? How did we get to a decision coming up through Amy Coney Barrett, who is the assigned circuit court judge for the seventh circuit in Illinois? And what does the ruling mean going forward in terms of other attempts by communities to

ban assault weapons? Let me catch you up at all that right now. First of all, what's the law we're talking about? It's an Illinois law and a city of Naperville, Illinois law that was passed after age alive for 2022, Highland Park mass shooting. We have so many mass shootings in America. Some people might forget this one, but you can't. Seven people died. Forty-eight people were wounded. Illinois to get control of the situation, passed a law to ban assault weapons,

high capacity magazines, and other lethal ammunition. A group of gun dealers got together, the National Association of Gun Rights sued Naperville and therefore challenged both the local ordinance and the state statute, claiming that 85% get the statistic, 85% of what their gun dealer client cell would be banned under the law. Let me say it another way. 85% of what gun dealers at least in Illinois sell, and I'm sure it's the same as an audit across America is assault weapons, high capacity magazines, and lethal ammunition. The other 15% I assume it's handguns, shotguns, and things that are protected under this Supreme Court's interpretation of the Second Amendment. But that is a mind boggling statistic that that's been revealed, that that much money, blood

money flows into gun dealers because of this type of weaponry. Okay? And let me be clear so that people who are just tuning in to me for the first time, I am not a anti-second amendment Democrat. Okay? I've owned handguns in my own life, okay? For personal protection, consistent with law. That's just the way it is. That's my approach.

That doesn't mean that assault weapons, military style equipment, bazookas, and other things, which are all being used, at least the AR-15s and the like, all being used in mass shootings, are, are supposed to be on the streets at all under the Second Amendment interpretation. And now we have the US Supreme Court who's come forward on an appeal. What happened is the lower level court in Illinois said that the Second Amendment, even as expanded over the summer in the Supreme Court case of New York rifle association versus brewing, did not extend as far as to allow somebody to own this military style weaponry under the Second Amendment. That got affirmed on an appeal to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which is the appellate court

that sits over states like Illinois. And they, and I'll read you a quote from that particular decision just so you know where that's coming from, because I think this sort of infects or animates all of the decision making. The seventh circuit ruled in upholding the district courts ruling held that particularly assault weapons and large capacity magazines quote are much more like machine guns and military grade weaponry than they are like the many different type of firearms that are used for self-defense. And that's the point. Machine guns, you know, have been off the streets of America. Thank God for a long, long time.

But these high-capacity rifles, military grade, especially if they've been tricked out by, you know, different types of kits that you can unfortunately get through the internet. They become these lethal killing machines that we only saw during wartime, but on the streets of America in the public schools and churches of America at public events of America. And that's what we're trying to to finally see if the Supreme Court is going to help local law enforcement try to do something to stem the tide of mass shootings in America. We just set a record for 2023 in an unenviable record in embarrassing morally depraved record

that we and think about how many shootings there have been in America. We just had the worst mass shooting year in the history of America in 2023. And let's, what we're trying to do is not have 2024 beat that record. All right. And that, and we need, we need the Supreme Court to help. So what happened is after the seventh circuit refused to take on the appeal or refused to overturn the district court's decision, the gun dealers filed an appeal, an emergency application to have the ban on assault weapons, 85% of their livelihood, apparently, according to their self admission, to have it blocked,

have it blocked while they continue to litigate the issue at the lower level, the trial court level on the record that's already been presented. And the US Supreme Court, the first stop on that train is the assigned circuit court judge for the seventh circuit, which is Amy Coney Barrett. Amy Coney Barrett had been an Indiana University of Notre Dame law professor. She's from the Midwest. They gave her that assignment. She has to decide whether she's going to make the decision as the judge, whether to reject

the appeal or she's going gonna refer it over to the complete nine members of the Supreme Court. This is part of that shadowed docket that we talked so much about in the last couple of years where a judge in Amy Coney Barrett's position or justice can on her own or his own thumb up or thumb down an appeal. However, because of all of the bad publicity that

the US Supreme Court has rightfully gotten, they have stopped really doing that that much. They may only temporarily say, stay something for a moment and then send it to the full panel for a decision. So Amy Coney Barrett refused on her own to stay the statute to stop the assault weapons ban from going into effect and refer it over to the full nine and in an unsigned order with no dissent. Think about who's on that Supreme Court for a moment. No dissent for three lines. They declined to take on the appeal, meaning it stays below at the trial court level. Case is not over.

There's still litigating the constitutionality of this particular issue at the trial court level through a full and complete record evidence, facts, testimony, legislative history and analysis. That's what's missing at this, at this particular moment. This case is in its infancy. There's not a lot of record that the US Supreme Court likes to see before it makes an ultimate pronouncement about a constitutional issue, especially so soon after they already ruled last summer in the brewing case to expand the Second Amendment. The ask they've taken some gun cases since then to sort of explain to people their interpretation

of limitations on gun, that can be imposed on gun rights, right? What kind of gun control laws are going to be okay under the expanded definition of the second amendment? They've done that, but this is the first case that's come up from the lower level circuit courts, and it's not a complete record. And I think that gave the court a lot of pause. Let the trial court do its job. Let the seventh circuit do its job.

Could take a year or two before the case maybe returns to the US Supreme Court if they decide to take the case up to the US Supreme Court at the justice level. But in the meantime, we're going to ban those assault weapons. Good health starts with good habits. Quip makes it easy by delivering all the oral care essentials you need to care for your mouth. This is exactly why Quip's water flosser is so essential. The Quip water flosser hits all the right spots with gentle or deep clean pressure at the

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Think about that. They could have put their thumb on the scale of justice the other way and said, no, no, we don't look. That's a second amendment. Right. You have the right to an AR 15 and you know, 150 rounds shoved into the bottom. You know, taking into a church or school, well, we'll, we'll deal with that carnage two years from now when we get to a full appeal, but we'll stop the assault weapons ban on the books right now. They didn't do that. And think about who's on the

US Supreme Court, you know, you have gun nut, gun rights to the extreme people like Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas. You got others that are sort of towards them, but not all the way to their extreme. I would have expected, at least, for instance, that Alito or Thomas to give hope, breathe life into the gun dealers of America at the expense of the victims of America. He would have written some sort of descent. But he didn't even do that. Nobody wrote a thing. They're just silent. And that's a messaging from the US Supreme Court, which is they don't, as of right now, based on the record developed, they don't see it. They don't see the unconstitutional attack. And what happens at the Supreme Court

level is generally there has to be, you know, one fast track route to the US Supreme Court is if there is a split in the circuits, meaning one circuit like the seven circuit rules this way, you know, the ban on assault weapons is constitutional under the Second Amendment. But another circuit, let's just pick one at random, the fifth, the really ultra conservative circuit that sits down in Louisiana and the one that covers Texas. They go, mono, gun rights, unlimited, unfettered. The founding fathers didn't put a limit on assault weapons, AR-15s and high capacity rifles because there weren't any and they couldn't anticipate them.

And so there shouldn't be one now. And then you got to split the circuits. So that was my split, um, artists rendering. Fifth and seventh, that has to get resolved in only one place. The US Supreme Court has to resolve a split in the circuits. But right now there is no split in the circuits because this is the only, it's hard to believe. This is the only ruling on the books right now is the ruling of the Illinois of the seventh circuit sitting in Illinois about these weapons, which now can be cited by other courts. Now look, you know the Ken Paxons of the world in Texas and other places, Florida with the Sanctus. They're going to try to flood

and get a new case in order to create a conflict and try to get it up to the Supreme Court. But for right now, and this is the reporting on this hot take, the assault weapons ban in Naperville, Illinois, in unordinance and the statute in Illinois is on the books and enforceable. And gun dealers in Illinois may not now and continuing and has never been stayed. Can't sell high capacity rifles, AR-15s and the like, high capacity magazines and lethal, certain types of lethal ammunition. Now there is one, I wanna be transparent here. There is one little weird quirk, I guess,

to get the votes in Illinois. They're allowing people that have already, at the time that statute was passed, and on the books, have already, at the time, that statute was passed. And on the books, who already had all of this, you know, sort of weapons of mass destruction in their homes to keep them if they registered with their local police. I mean, I assume it was there was a fight and struggle over confiscating personal property and retroactive impact of ex-post facto laws, not to bore you on this hot take.

I assume it was some sort of battle like that in the house and the Senate of that particular state in the state house. And that was the compromise. But you know, I think, you know, we'll have to look at the statistics, but I assume it's at a tremendous impact on lowering mass shootings in Illinois. And if you pass something like that federally across the country, which can only be done by Congress, where one party is in control of Congress, then, you know, we wouldn't have to worry about, you know, sitting on pins and needles

about what is this US Supreme Court, MAGA, right, six to three, going to do with this particular case, right? So we'll continue to cover things that are important, like assault weapons, bands and the US Supreme Court's reaction to them. Only one place on the Midas Touch YouTube channel exclusively there. That's where you are. You're here with me now. Free, subscribe, free. Really?

To there, YouTube channel and help them get to two million free subscribers. And then if you like this kind of hot take, you'll like this kind of analysis of lawyers, talking about things that they understand at the intersection of law, politics and justice, join us on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Eastern time for a show. We call legal a F. It's exactly what you think. We take four or five of these cutting edge stories from the week. And we give it to you right here. We don't blow smoke or sunshine.

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