With the deadline for filing motions approaching, we are moving forward on Knife Rights’ federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of significant portions of the Federal Switchblade Act on Second Amendment grounds. The court previously dismissed this lawsuit on standing grounds “without prejudice.”
The court made that decision based on testimony by the Feds that they have not enforced the act through prosecutions since 2010, but it turns out that there has been enforcement action taken very recently. Apparently, the DOJ was not entirely forthright with the Court. I know, you’re probably shocked to hear that.
We had 28 days to either appeal the decision to the Fifth Circuit straight out or ask for reconsideration based on new information that has come to light and asking to be allowed to perform additional discovery based on the Fed’s less-than-forthright testimony.
Filing for reconsideration with the new facts, a motion that experience suggests is still likely to be denied, and then going on to appeal with Plaintiffs in a stronger legal position, likely means another year, or more, of costly litigation until we get to the merits of the case.
Since the case was dismissed “without prejudice,” another option is available. As the deadline for filing approached, and even more new facts came to light, we determined that a more efficient and effective strategy will be file a new complaint with an even stronger case, with regards to the issue of standing, and with additional facts. That will save us months, perhaps years, of effort. Not that we think we had a real standing issue, and we’d expect the District Court’s decision to be reversed, but…time. By filing a new complaint, we are significantly minimizing the litigation time to reach a decision on the merits.
You can expect an announcement of the new complaint being filed in the next few weeks.
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Knife Rights is America’s grassroots knife owners’ organization; leading the fight to Rewrite Knife Law in America™ and forging a Sharper Future for all Americans™. Knife Rights efforts have resulted in 49 bills passed repealing knife bans in 31 states and over 200 cities and towns since 2010.
Knife Rights Foundation pursues litigation in support of knife owner civil rights.