Cases

VanDerStok v. Garland

The ATF's Unlawful Redefinition of Your Rights

This Final Rule, addressing the “Definition of ‘Frame or Receiver’ and Identification of Firearms,” alters the legal landscape surrounding firearms regulation, giving complete discretionary power to the ATF and its Director to decide what the ATF can regulate and how. The ATF is usurping Congress’s legislative power and is wielding the regulation to severely burden the practice of self-manufacture and the businesses that facilitate it.

Kennedy v. Bremerton School District

Penalty for Praying Coach Sidelines Religious Liberty

— Coach Joseph Kennedy is a former U.S. Marine who coached football at Bremerton High School, in Bremerton, Washington, until 2015, when he was suspended from his job by the school district for defying an order to not public engage in a post-game prayer. Now, after a series of court setbacks, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to rule on whether Kennedy’s religious liberties were trampled when the district first forbid him from praying with his players, and then ordered him to pray in secret. At issue in this case is whether public employees can be legally prohibited from private and personal displays of religious faith on “Establishment Clause” grounds.

West Virginia v. EPA

Pumping The Brakes On Rogue Presidents

In the American constitutional order, Congress makes laws. The President and federal agencies are tasked with executing, enforcing and sometimes interpreting those laws, in cases where Congress used ambiguous language. But how much latitude and discretion does the executive branch have when it comes to the interpretative part of its mission, if the text of the law isn’t clear? On that question a lot depends, given the vast regulatory power the modern administrative state wields like a hammer.

Dominic Bianchi v. Brian Frosh

Maryland's Rifle Ban Needs Supreme Court Review

Playing on popular misconceptions and fears, the State of Maryland bans what it deems “assault weapons”—a non-technical public relations term, used to demonize commonly owned and constitutionally protected firearms.  A group of plaintiffs have sued Maryland’s attorney general, challenging this unconstitutional ban and seeking a full restoration of their natural right to self-defense—now they’re asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case.

Josh Young v. Colorado Department of Corrections, et al.

Fighting the Bigotry of EDI Training

Former Colorado Corrections Sergeant Josh Young is suing the Centennial State over divisive and bigoted “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” training that created a hostile and discriminatory workplace, further ratcheted-up racial tensions in the prison, and recklessly undermined the morale, cohesiveness and safety of the facility’s guard force and inmate population.  

Ideker Farms, LLC v. United States

Uncle Sam Must Pay For A Farmland Bait And Switch

This case raises the question of how property owners and businesses along the Missouri River should be compensated in response to government-caused flooding that destroyed crops, devalued their farmland and damaged their businesses. One Court already has ruled that they’re the victims of a government-caused taking. But Washington continues to resist paying the damaged parties just compensation for the harm that Washington did.  

Celeste T. Archer v. John Kroll, et al

When Campus COVID Enforcers Go Too Far

Denver educator Celeste Archer is a luminary in the Colorado education community. She is the Executive Director of the University of Colorado Denver’s National History Day in Colorado program. But in a Kafkaesque turn of events, school officials summarily barred Archer from campus based on an anonymous allegation that she had tested positive for COVID-19, had COVID-19 symptoms, or had been exposed to them. The exclusion order was issued without advance notice, without an investigation, without a hearing, and without Archer having an opportunity to rebut the claim.

“Stabilizing” or “Pistol” Brace Rulemaking

CKBA Opposes Biden's Attempted Pistol Brace Ban

hat contradicts the plain meaning of the law, as well as longstanding Federal standards, the Department of Justice (DOJ) seeks to redefine many pistols with stabilizing braces as “short-barreled rifles,” by a rule proposed for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) in June 2021.  Owners of these newly redefined guns would be subject to an incredibly stringent set of registration requirements and taxes—as well federal felony convictions for any wrong step—under the National Firearms Act.