Time for a yearly update on Baker...
.
Here is a verbatim Facebook post today from Charles Nichols of California Right to Carry/California Open Carry speculating on the Baker case delay. I am not endorsing Nichols' opinions in this instance, merely presenting them as one view about the case. Nichols filed his opening brief on November 9, 2016, and a request for his case to initially be heard en banc on December 14, 2016.
* * * * *
It has been 1861 days since my California Open Carry lawsuit was filed!
Update by Charles Nichols, President of California Right To Carry – January 3, 2017 – For a variety of reasons, some of which I wrote about in this article [http://blog.californiarighttocarry.org/?page_id=1622] nearly four months ago, this case is a mess. But not so much a mess which would prevent a decision by now. After all, they already had an opinion from the Peruta v. San Diego concealed carry 3 judge panel decision (now vacated) which would have been a fine opinion had the two judge majority not written that nonsense about it being perfectly constitutional to ban Open Carry in favor of concealed carry. Trim a couple of lines and add that states cannot require a permit to openly carry a firearm as well as an injunction against Hawaii laws to the extent they prohibit Open Carry and they’re good to go.
In other words, about 15 minutes of work is all that would have been required to publish a decision in this case by now. Since that hasn’t happened, there are two likely reasons. Either the two judges in the majority hate Open Carry so much, a possibility I put forth in this article I wrote back in August, or Judge Thomas [now chief judge of the Ninth CCA] is withholding his dissent thereby prohibiting the decision from being issued.
If Judge Thomas is withholding his dissent then he can withhold it indefinitely. It would take a writ by Justice Kennedy (or SCOTUS) to force the circuit court to issue a decision, assuming that Baker’s attorneys would even file a writ. They strike me as being too gunshy to do that and I’m not sure they have even been admitted to the Supreme Court bar. If they haven’t been admitted then they would have to find a lawyer who is in order to file the writ for them.
Another possibility, somewhat less likely, is the three circuit judges who are presiding over the Baker case are waiting for a decision in my en banc petition with an eye toward hearing my appeal as well as the two appeals out of Hawaii (Baker and Young) at the same time.
There is no way of knowing for certain. Only time will tell and even then it won’t tell the whole story.
Note: Links to the two articles I referenced are at my website under today's update. Simply click on the link.
http://blog.californiarighttocarry.org/?page_id=1622