A California law suit that has been bouncing back and forth in the court for almost ten years has become the unlikely vehicle by which the question of whether the Second Amendment is “incorporated” so it restricts state and local gun control efforts may be answered. 

Following on the heels of the June Supreme Court ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment does protect a fundamental individual right and restricts federal action restricting the right to keep and bear arms, today members of an NRA led coalition of self-defense civil rights groups filed a flurry of “friend of the court” amicus briefs in the case of Nordyke v. Alamenda. The Nordyke case is now before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. It was filed by gun show promoters challenging an ordinance that bans guns on county property (effectively banning the gun show at the county fairgrounds). 

Joining the NRA’s efforts are the California Rifle and Pistol Association, Second Amendment Foundation, Gun Owners of California, The National Association of Arms Shows, and dozens of esteemed law professors from law schools across the country.  Briefs arguing against the right to keep and bear arms were filed by the California State Sheriffs Association, the California Peace Officers Association, the California Police Chiefs Association, San Francisco, Oakland, the Legal Community Against Violence, the Brady Center, and other anti gun owner groups. 

All of the briefs, along with a history of the case, are posted at www.calgunlaws.com. 

With the supplemental briefs on the incorporation issue filed today, the Court will now set a date for oral argument. The Court will almost certainly have to decide the incorporation question, and then (assuming they find that the Second Amendment applies to the states) either decide whether the gun show ban ordinance violates the Second Amendment or send the case back (remand) to the trial court to make that determination.