Opinion
New York – -(AmmoLand.com)- Just as the Sullivan Act of 1911 laid out the basic steps of handgun licensing that started the inexorable process of disarming the citizenry in New York, and as Hochul’s predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, continued that process through the enactment of the New York Safe Act of 2013, plus several antigun enactments since, culminating in the CCIA, are designed to further whittle away the natural law right of armed self-defense.
Governor Hochul has appealed the District Court decision ordering a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) preventing enforcement of the Concealed Carry Improvement Act (CCIA), filing her appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
So, the questions are, first, what will the Second Circuit do now that an appeal has been filed, and two, how will Hochul react to the Appellate Court’s rulings if those rulings don’t go her way? And the Appellate Court should keep the TRO stay in place.
Indeed, the Federal Court of Appeals must keep the TRO stay in place. But it isn’t clear it will do that. But its failure to do so would lead to irreparable harm to the Plaintiffs and to the New York public that cherishes the natural law right of armed self-defense.
The State Governor, Kathy Hochul, & the City of New York mayor, Eric Adams, have forsaken the people to whom it is their duty to serve.
One thing is patently clear: the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit would prefer it didn’t have to contend with this. Anything involving the Second Amendment is a hot potato for the Second Circuit and the Federal District Courts of New York. They now must deal with the aftermath of decades of complacency and deference toward a State Government. The policies and laws of the latter demonstrate abject ruthlessness toward and callous disregard for the life, safety, and well-being of the people of New York.
Heller and McDonald created a host of problems for a jurisdiction historically antithetical to Americans’ exercise of the natural law right of armed self-defense. New York’s attack on the natural law right of armed self-defense goes back well over one hundred years.
But the Bruen rulings might have shaken the Federal Courts of New York out of their stupor and out of their heretofore typical hands-off approach toward a State Government inexorably whittling away the right of the people to keep and bear arms to a nullity.
The Courts may yet realize their duty is to the U.S. Constitution and not to the officials of the New York State Government who are intent on erasing the natural law right of armed self-defense in New York.
With the Bruen decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the U.S. District Courts of New York realize they can no longer hide their Anti-Second Amendment opinions and musings and biases behind abstruse legal verbiage and sophistry that contravene High Court rulings, and all for the sake of a State Government that abhors the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights.
That makes matters difficult for Governor Hochul. But that won’t prevent her from urging the Second Circuit to embrace and protect her CCIA godchild and make her arguments opposing the TRO.
The District Court is no slouch. It gave the Circuit Court every reason to keep in place the TRO that the District Court had issued.
The District Court was careful to provide the Hochul Government with both notice and hearing before the issuance of the TRO. It need not have done so. Court issuance of a TRO doesn’t require prior notice and hearing to the party against whom it is issued.
The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals cannot ignore this fact and will take note of it.
The Court will point out that it is the Plaintiffs, not the Government, who are likely to prevail in a trial on the merits and that it is the Plaintiffs, not the Hochul Government, who will suffer grievous harm if the Government can continue to enforce the CCIA during discovery and trial.
Do not expect the Second Circuit to blithely lift the stay on the TRO.
But that raises the question: “how long is the District Court’s TRO stay on enforcement of the CCIA to remain in effect?”
And the District Court did not leave that matter hanging open-ended, either. Among its orders in Antonyuk vs. Hochul, the Court said that its——
“Temporary Restraining Order shall remain in effect pending a hearing and ruling on Plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction.”
Unless the Second Circuit is as remiss of its duties toward the Constitution and as dismissive of the citizenry as the Hochul Government and Democrat Legislators in Albany clearly are, we anticipate the TRO will remain in place until the final resolution of the case on the merits.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the right of armed self-defense extends to the public realm.
This is consistent with the language of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; in fact, the right of armed self-defense is embedded in the right of the people to keep and bear arms. The natural law right of armed self-defense against predatory man, beast, or Government is embedded in the Second Amendment and follows by logical implication.
The High Court did not make new law in NYSRPA vs. Bruen, as many people in the Federal and State Governments wrongly believe, or as Hochul wrongly thinks.
The High Court simply recited and reiterated what plainly exists in the codification of natural law.
One should reasonably expect the Second Circuit will remand the Hochul case to the District Court to determine whether to issue a preliminary or permanent injunction in the case.
The Federal Appellate Court will likely order the lower District Court to resolve the substantive issues pertaining to the Constitutionality of the CCIA and determine whether to award Plaintiffs with a preliminary or permanent injunction against enforcement of the CCIA. All the while the TRO stay against enforcement of the CCIA should remain in place.
Once the District Court issues either a preliminary or permanent injunction against Hochul, the injunction will have the effect of a final appealable order.
This raises the question of whether, in the interim, Governor Hochul will abide by a TRO stay of enforcement of the CCIA pending resolution of the Antonyuk vs. Hochul case, or will she defy the Second Circuit Court of Appeals just as she blatantly defied the U.S. Supreme Court on signing the CCIA into law?
Hochul might defy the Court’s order and enforce the CCIA. If so, the Plaintiffs will then need to return to the Federal Court of Appeals to get the Second Circuit Court to issue its “Contempt of Court Show Cause Order” against Hochul.
If she does defy an order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit staying the enforcement of the CCIA, it would be impossible for Hochul to continue, however plausibly or implausibly maintained, to disguise defiance of a Federal Court order as compliance.
Perhaps Hochul doesn’t care.
But would the New York public care?
And would the public demand the Hochul Government comply with an order from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals?
Will the New York electorate embrace or reject Kathy Hochul? The Midterm Election will tell the story.
The reprobates in New York will, of course, support Hochul. But they look forward to destroying our free Constitutional Republic anyway, relishing the coming of the Soros “Open Society” in which the U.S. is just another cog in a grotesque, monstrous machine, and its people, hapless, vanquished subjects.
Many other New Yorkers will passively accept whatever befalls them even if they disagree with Hochul’s abject defiance of the Courts, which is most unfortunate. Passivity and sloth are killers. Forget about them, too. These people are asleep and cannot be roused from their slumber.
If Hochul refuses to adhere to Court orders and rulings, it is up to the remaining members of the public, the true Patriots in New York, to hold Hochul’s feet to the fire. May they prevail and preserve the success of the American Revolution of 1776 for both themselves and future generations of Americans!*
Related:
*Hochul is apparently afraid that the Midterms will see her out of office. She would like to purge all Republicans from the State. An August 2022 New York Post article is worth a read:
“Gov. Kathy Hochul, who hasn’t proven shy about issuing orders, had one for the state’s Republicans this week — all 5.4 million of them: ‘Just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong, OK?’ she said. ‘You are not New Yorkers.’”
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