Gun advocates wary of nominee

Judge Sonia Sotomayor rejected a claim by a defendant who said New York's ban on nunchakus violated his Second Amendment rights.


* MAY 30, 2009

Gun Advocates See Reason to Be Wary of Nominee

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By GARY FIELDS

WASHINGTON -- Gun-rights advocates are using Judge Sonia Sotomayor's involvement in two Second Amendment cases as ammunition to challenge her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, threatening to draw the Obama administration into a debate over firearms laws that it has tried hard to avoid.
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Gun Lobby Mulls Sotomayor Nomination
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Judge Sonia Sotomayor's involvement in weapons cases threatens to draw the Obama administration into a gun debate the president deftly avoided since taking office. Some gun groups are campaigning against Judge Sotomayor, focusing on two past rulings that seem to limit the right to bear arms, Gary Fields reports.

The Gun Owners of America, an organization based in Springfield, Va., is telling its 300,000 members to let senators know they oppose Judge Sotomayor's appointment. "Our message will be to the senators [that] it doesn't matter how you voted" on other gun issues, said executive director Larry Pratt. The nomination "is the big one."

The clash between gun-control laws and the breadth of the constitutional right to bear arms is one of several social issues being scoured by people on both sides of the ideological spectrum for clues to Judge Sotomayor's leanings. Her record on the bench provides few hints of her views on such hot-button issues as abortion or gay marriage.

The gun owners' opposition stems from two rulings in which Judge Sotomayor took part while on the federal appellate bench. The January 2009 Maloney v. Cuomo decision involved a challenge from a New York resident arrested for possessing nunchakus, a martial arts weapon made of two thick sticks joined at the ends by a short length of chain or cord. The defendant said the state's ban on nunchakus violated his Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

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Judge Sonia Sotomayor rejected a claim by a defendant who said New York's ban on nunchakus violated his Second Amendment rights.
PA Wire

Judge Sonia Sotomayor rejected a claim by a defendant who said New York's ban on nunchakus violated his Second Amendment rights.
Judge Sonia Sotomayor rejected a claim by a defendant who said New York's ban on nunchakus violated his Second Amendment rights.
Judge Sonia Sotomayor rejected a claim by a defendant who said New York's ban on nunchakus violated his Second Amendment rights.

A three-judge panel including Judge Sotomayor rejected the claim in an unsigned opinion. The court cited earlier rulings, including an 1886 Supreme Court decision, in holding that "the Second Amendment applies only to limitations the federal government seeks to impose on this right," not to state legislative efforts.

Another unsigned 2004 decision, U.S. v. Sanchez-Villar, rejected a defendant's claim that a New York gun law "offends" the Second Amendment. Judge Sotomayor's panel cited a 1984 Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling "stating that the right to possess a gun is clearly not a fundamental right."

In a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court case, the justices ruled 5-4 that individuals have the right under the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms. That opinion struck down a 1976 Washington, D.C., law that effectively banned handguns. But because the decision applied only to the capital district, a federal enclave that isn't part of a state, it left open the Second Amendment's application to state weapons regulations.

The rulings in Judge Sotomayor's cases show the administration's true thinking on gun rights, said Mr. Pratt of the Gun Owners organization. "I think the cat has now come screaming out of the bag," he said.

Administration officials have talked little of gun control since President Barack Obama took office, even when pressed on the matter following a slew of multiple murders around the nation. In fact, earlier this month Mr. Obama signed a bill that included an amendment relaxing decades-long restrictions on carrying firearms onto federal park lands.

The Supreme Court is likely to hear arguments in the next few years over whether the Second Amendment applies to states and local governments.

In April, the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco said the Second Amendment does apply to state and local governments, but still upheld a local ordinance that forbids bringing firearms on county property.

This past Tuesday in Chicago, meanwhile, the Seventh Circuit heard a National Rifle Association challenge of a lower-court ruling that upheld gun regulations adopted by Chicago and Oak Park, Ill.

"The judges indicated at the oral argument that they agree with their previous position in a 1980s case" holding that the Second Amendment isn't applicable to the states, said NRA attorney Stephen Halbrook.

Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the NRA, said the group has "serious concerns" about Judge Sotomayor but isn't necessarily opposing her nomination. Mr. Arulanandam said his organization, which has four million members, wants to hear the judge explain her stance on Second Amendment issues.

"If there are satisfactory answers to the questions, then we'll move on," Mr. Arulanandam said.

Mr. Halbrook, the NRA attorney, noted favorably Judge Sotomayor's dissenting opinion last December in a gun case. The majority in that case held that a man convicted of gun trafficking could receive a longer sentence than guidelines advised because he was moving firearms to a densely populated area.

Judge Sotomayor disagreed and cautioned against using "subjective considerations, such as a judge's feelings about a particular type of crime," to determine sentences.