Maryland
Fourth Circuit amicus brief on Maryland handgun licensing law
![Fourth Circuit amicus brief on Maryland handgun licensing law Fourth Circuit amicus brief on Maryland handgun licensing law](https://d2eehagpk5cl65.cloudfront.net/img/q60/uploads/2021/02/handgun_1161x653.jpg)
Right this moment Joseph Greenlee and I filed an amicus transient within the Fourth Circuit case Maryland Shall Problem v. Hogan. Our transient is on behalf of the Firearms Coverage Coalition Motion Basis (the place he works) and Independence Institute (the Denver suppose tank the place I work).
The case had beforehand appeared within the Fourth Circuit in 2020, when a panel dominated {that a} licensed firearms seller had standing to problem Maryland’s 2013 handgun licensing regulation, and that the seller additionally had third get together standing on behalf of shoppers. 971 F.3d 199 (4th Cir. 2020). Now, the case has returned on the deserves. The Maryland Legal professional Common denied consent for submitting of the amicus transient, so we are going to wait to see whether or not the Fourth Circuit accepts it.
Underneath a 2013 Maryland statute, a state-issued Handgun Qualification License (HQL), which requires vary coaching, is important to buy, lease, or obtain a handgun. That is on prime of the pre-existing system requiring a “Maryland State Police Utility and Affidavit to Buy a Regulated Firearm” (MSP 77R). And naturally on prime of the background test required by federal regulation for all firearms purchases in gun shops. In line with the grievance, making use of for a HQL takes a month, and necessitates “tons of of {dollars} in charges, prices and journey, not counting time without work of labor.”
The amicus transient straightforwardly applies the Supreme Courtroom’s take a look at for Second Modification circumstances, as lately said in New York State Rifle & Pistol Affiliation v. Bruen
When the Second Modification’s plain textual content covers a person’s conduct, the Structure presumptively protects that conduct. The federal government should then justify its regulation by demonstrating that it’s in line with the Nation’s historic custom of firearm regulation. Solely then could a court docket conclude that the person’s conduct falls exterior the Second Modification’s unqualified command.
Right here, the case entails retaining a handgun within the residence, which is actually protected by the Second Modification. The federal government bears the burden of proving that the HQL “is in line with the Nation’s historic custom of firearm regulation.”
In Bruen, the Courtroom said that historical past from the unique durations (1791 for the Second Modification, 1868 for the Fourteenth, which made the Second Modification enforceable in opposition to the states) are most vital. Colonial historical past is related, as is English historical past to the extent that it mirrored an unbroken custom that was adopted by the colonists and in power in the course of the Founding Period. The nineteenth century can be related, with the primary a part of the century being most vital, and the latter a part of significantly much less (however not zero) significance. Something after 1900 is much too late to determine a convention opposite to the constitutional textual content.
Within the Maryland Shall Problem amicus transient, we describe in chronological order all pre-1900 licensing legal guidelines for gun possession. Such legal guidelines did exist, however just for individuals who had been thought-about to not have civil rights: slaves (who had been both blacks or Indians) or free folks of shade (once more, blacks or Indians). Antebellum courts that upheld these legal guidelines expressly said that they might be unconstitutional if utilized to the white inhabitants. Aldridge v. Commonwealth, 4 Va. 447, 449 (1824); State v. Newsom, 27 N.C. 250, 252 (1844).
The Fourteenth Modification and the Civil Rights Act removed all of the gun possession licensing legal guidelines. No such regulation was enacted thereafter in america within the nineteenth century, aside from an 1893 Florida statute. That statute made it illegal to “personal a Winchester or different repeating rifle” with out a license from the County Commissioners; the license required an exorbitant bond.
As Florida Supreme Courtroom Justice Rivers H. Buford later defined, the licensing regulation “was handed . . . for the aim of disarming the negro laborers” within the state and “was by no means meant to be utilized to the white inhabitants.” Watson v. Stone, 148 Fla. 516, 524 (1941) (Buford, J., concurring). Justice Buford famous that “there had by no means been any effort to implement the provisions of this statute as to white folks, as a result of it has been usually conceded to be in contravention of the Structure and non-enforceable if contested.” Id.
So the variety of legitimate pre-1900 precedents for licensing residence possession of a firearm is zero. Whereas Bruen permits analogical reasoning (fairly than merely copying legitimate gun management legal guidelines from pre-1900), right here there may be nothing on which to base an analogy.
The precedent for a coaching requirement for residence possession can be non-existent. There isn’t any query {that a} state authorities can practice the militia. U.S. Structure, Artwork. I, sect. 8, cl. 16 (“reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of coaching the Militia in keeping with the self-discipline prescribed by Congress”); Md. Const. artwork. IX, § 1 (“The Common Meeting shall make, every now and then, such provisions for organizing, equipping and disciplining the Militia, because the exigency could require, and go such Legal guidelines to advertise Volunteer Militia organizations as could afford them effectual encouragement.”).
The HQL, nonetheless, applies to everybody in Maryland, not solely militia members. And the coaching necessities don’t contain militia expertise, equivalent to perimeter protection by a bunch. Traditionally, coaching was not a precondition to possession of an arm for militia responsibility. Slightly, the statutes required militiamen to own sure arms (usually, an extended gun and an edged weapon), and to convey these arms to coaching at any time when the federal government scheduled militia coaching.
Notably, in lots of colonies and states, the federal government additionally required possession of the identical arms by individuals who had been not within the militia. These included males with occupational exemptions (e.g., physicians), males who had been too previous for the militia, and females who had been heads of households.
Moreover, many statutes required arms carrying by everybody participating in sure actions, equivalent to touring, going to public conferences, going to church, going to court docket, or working within the fields. These necessities utilized no matter intercourse or family standing.
Notably, there have been no coaching necessities in any respect for non-militia who had been legally required to own the identical arms because the militia. No state or colony earlier than 1900 imposed any rule making coaching a prerequisite to retaining a firearm at residence.
Subsequently, the amicus transient means that the coaching requirement of Maryland’s Handgun Qualification License is unconstitutional.
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Maryland
Michigan State football opens as sizable underdog vs Maryland
![Michigan State football opens as sizable underdog vs Maryland Michigan State football opens as sizable underdog vs Maryland](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_4256,h_2394,x_0,y_0/c_fill,w_1440,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/137/01j6q8yb7r3y04b36mbn.jpg)
Who’s ready for Big Ten play to begin? In all honesty, I am not. I really wish Michigan State football had more tune-up games after seeing them struggle against Florida Atlantic and only win 16-10. But unfortunately, that is not how the schedule unfolds for Michigan State this season.
The Spartans will hit the road for an early Big Ten game as they face Maryland on Saturday at 3:30 pm. Going into the season I thought Michigan State and the Terps were on a pretty level playing field, but after seeing both teams play week one that doesn’t appear to be the case.
And Vegas agrees.
Michigan State opens as a 7.5-point underdog next week at Maryland. My guess is that grows to 8, 8.5.
— Graham Couch (@Graham_Couch) September 1, 2024
As you all know, Michigan State only beat Florida Atlantic by six and did not look very impressive, especially on the offensive side of the ball. So it’s no surprise that MSU will be the underdog next week. But 7.5 points feels like a lot, and according to the Lansing State Journal’s Graham Couch, it likely will only go up from there.
So does Vegas have it right or are they underrating Michigan State?
Looking at Maryland’s week one game against UConn it appears Vegas has this line right. The Terps were up 23-0 at halftime and never looked back and went on to win in dominant fashion 50-7. UConn and FAU are very similar in terms of what level they’re at in college football, so that drastic of a difference in the final score is very scary.
So Vegas probably could’ve gotten away with Maryland being even bigger favorites in this one.
But maybe Vegas saw what I did and thinks a lot of Michigan State’s mistakes on Friday are easy to fix. Maybe they think Aidan Chiles will be much better next week. The Spartan’s defense was also fairly dominant so there isn’t much of a chance Maryland scores 50 points next week either.
I tend to not bet on Michigan State games, but even if I did this would be a line that I would avoid because who knows how much Jonathan Smith’s squad will improve by next week, and who knows how much Maryland might struggle against a Power Four opponent.
Maryland
University of Maryland reverses decision to allow anti-Israel protest on October 7
The University of Maryland on Sunday reversed its decision to allow an anti-Israel protest on the first anniversary of the October 7 Massacre, following backlash from local Jewish groups.
UMD Students for Justice in Palestine and UMD Jewish Voice for Peace had been set to hold their October 7 vigil for Gazans killed in the Israel-Hamas War at the campus’s Mckeldin Mall, but the University System of Maryland (USM) said in a statement that on the day of the Hamas-led pogrom it would limit campus events requiring permits or approval to those supporting “a university-sponsored Day of Dialogue.”
“From the beginning of the war, we have come together as a University System to urge that we use this moment to encourage conversation, compassion, and civility; to engage with one another across our differences and draw on our shared humanity and our shared values to bridge what divides us,” said USM. “These dialogues aren’t new. Many of our universities have been hosting this kind of programming for several months. Reserving Oct. 7 gives us a chance to continue these urgent conversations and to mark this solemn anniversary in a way that gives students—all students—the time and space to share and to be heard.”
USM said that its intent was not to infringe of the free expression and speech of students, but to be sensitive to the needs of students as October 7 was a “day of enormous suffering and grief for many in our campus communities.”
UMD Jewish Student Union, Maryland Hillel, Terps for Israel, and Israeli American Council Mishelanu at Maryland welcomed the USM decision and thanked UMD leadership in a joint social media statement on Sunday.
“October 7, the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, is a day of mourning for the Jewish and Israeli community,” said the UMD JSU. “We are relieved that SJP will no longer to be able to appropriate the suffering of our family and friends to fit their false and dangerous narrative.”
The Jewish groups said that it was distraught that the decision to only hold university-sponsored event had to be made at all, and wished to used the campus space to “grieve together as a community” to promote unity at the university. The unideal situation was necessary, according to the Jewish groups, to ensure the physical and psychological safety of students on the day of mourning.
UMD JVP and SJP attacked the decision to cancel the event, claiming that the vigil for Palestinians killed since the October 7 Massacre was attacked without familiarity of the content. The anti-Israel groups said that the discourse was “the continuation inherently racist, Islamophobic, and dehumanizing rhetoric surrounding Palestinians.” JVP and SJP said that the actions against their event were an attempt to paint “Muslim, Arab, and anti-Zionist Jewish students as barbaric.”
The anti-Israel groups asserted that their vigil for Palestinians who died in the war was no threat to the campus’s Jewish community, but conflation of Zionism and Judaism did threaten UMD and the Jewish community.
“To claim that Palestinians cannot hold a day of remembrance in mourning one year of genocide, or lay claim to that date is an insult to every life lost in the Zionist entity’s genocidal campaign,” UMD SJP and JVP said on Instagram on Sunday. “The disproportionate scale of suffering experienced by the Palestinians over the past year necessitates their remembrance and our solidarity on this day. The suffering of all innocents killed must not be monopolized and necessitates a fair and just representation.”
SJP and JVP demanded the right to organize and exercise their right to free speech, accusing Zionists of attempting to stifle Palestinian voices.
The organizations indicated on their Sunday Instagram post that they still planned to hold their all-day event at Mckeldin Mall, and on Monday a link to register still active and listing the campus building as the rally location.
UMD Jewish groups said that they would be holding their own event to memorialize the victims of the October 7 pogrom at the Maryland Hillel.
Maryland
Sunshine for your Labor Day in Maryland
![Sunshine for your Labor Day in Maryland Sunshine for your Labor Day in Maryland](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2024/09/02/44f70b16-36c5-418b-a083-913b44ccccef/thumbnail/1200x630/35894c49deb7bc01bace1597e72e5c6f/354a4da6cd4b544ff5da5921dfff7e33.jpg?v=25685eaa472b1a5dbb5bd46ae506d232)
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