U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)-– The New York State anti-Second Amendment law, enacted under an extraordinary session brought about by Governor Hochel, is blatantly unconstitutional under the terms of the recent Bruen decision by the Supreme Court. Several provisions of the law are likely to be struck down. This article focuses on the requirement to provide social media accounts and the practical mechanisms, which mean very few permits will be approved under this provision.
Those which are approved are likely to take an unconstitutional amount of time. From Bruen, page 30 of the opinion, footnote 9:
And they likewise appear to contain only “narrow, objective, and definite standards” guiding licensing officials, Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham, 394 U. S. 147, 151 (1969), rather than requiring the “appraisal of facts, the exercise of judgment, and the formation of an opinion,” Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U. S. 296, 305 (1940)—features that typify proper-cause standards like New York’s. That said, because any permitting scheme can be put toward abusive ends, we do not rule out constitutional challenges to shall-issue regimes where, for example, lengthy wait times in processing license applications or exorbitant fees deny ordinary citizens their right to public carry.
Here is Section IV of the bill:
(IV) A LIST OF FORMER AND CURRENT SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS OF THE APPLICANT FROM THE PAST THREE YEARS TO CONFIRM THE INFORMATION REGARDING THE APPLICANTS CHARACTER AND CONDUCT AS REQUIRED IN SUBPARA-GRAPH (II) OF THIS PARAGRAPH; AND
Section IV appears to directly require the formation of an opinion, rather than “narrow, objective, and definite standards”, as required by Bruen. Bruen states if times to process are “lengthy” or if fees are “exorbitant”, shall issue regimes are likely to fail a Second Amendment test.
Authorities who are empowered by New York State law to issue permits face extreme danger if they approve of permits under the recently passed scheme. Section IV is a nearly impossible task for one person who is required to process dozens or hundreds of applications. This appears to be by design.
Not many people who have the authority to approve a permit will be able to take the time to meticulously go through three years of social media data to determine if there is one off-color or politically incorrect post among tens of thousands. The process is necessarily subjective and lengthy.
The risk for the approving authority will be perceived as very high if they do not do this.
If one of the approved permit applicants becomes involved in a shooting, even if fully justified, of someone in a government-approved “victim” class, their career will be in jeopardy. Consider what happened to the police officers in Minneapolis who followed written policy and ended with a prison sentence or undergoing trial.
The incentive to deny permits en mass is extreme. An alternative would be to delay permit approval by months or years.
The social media requirement is a blatant wrench thrown into the gears of the approval process.
Johnathan Corbett, Esq. has made a compelling case of how the law explicitly violates the Second Amendment rights of people in New York City by imposing the requirements in Section IV and others. The lawsuit was filed on July 11, 2022, against Governor Hochel and NYS. Corbett uses well-thought-out arguments to show how three of the law’s sections are obviously unconstitutional. He appears to have standing.
Several other lawsuits have been filed against the law passed in extraordinary session.
Will the Federal Courts in New York State side with the Supreme Court?
Will the Second Circuit openly defy the Supreme Court?
We should know shortly. It does not take much time to grant or deny a request for an injunction to stop enforcement of the new law.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
Not everyone has social media accounts. I have never had a Facebook or Twitter account and probably never will.
Same here!
buzzsaw:
(No social media account) This is New York, damnit. For the purposes of denying our God-given rights that 8 year old login (to look at the weather) will be determined to be Social Media. Can you say “Blue-States have a propensity to interpret everything in their agenda-driven own way?” (I’m reminded that cuomo resigned for the sexual harassment chargeS, not for the 15,000+ murders of seniors by forcing CCPVID-19 infected individuals BACK INTO NURSING homes (despite medical advice to maintain their separation) while he concurrently prevented family members from visiting the patients in the forced-China-Virus-infected nursing homes..
Don’t think for a second that the constitution haters in NY won’t stretch the definition of social media to deny as many people as possible. Commenting on an article here could be considered a social media post, as could leaving a comment on a YouTube video. If you’ve ever had a Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail account and left a “spicy” comment on stories posted by any of those respective services it will be used against you.
You have one here. Ever post on The High Road or Arfcom?
Had a Facebook for about 6 months, until a friend of mine that I had known for 20+ years posted a “Thank You” to President Obama for killing BinLaden. I replied that “our brave men and women in service of our country had done the work and deserved the thanks. Obama had to give the go-ahead, because if it ever got out that we could have done it but the president said “no”, that would have been political suicide”. My friend agreed, saying that he had never thought of it that way. All HELL broke loose on that comment about… Read more »
SMART! And just think of the hours or days or maybe weeks of your life you can use for something useful. Like posting here!
Or on the range, honing your skills.
Does THE BOOK 1984 Ring a BELL??????????
Section 242, title 18: “deprivation of civil rights under color of law”. That’s what each of these legislators need to get slapped with. Each and every time they deprive us of our rights.
18 USC 242 should include: no government employee shall use their office to attempt to diminish, abridge, or infringe the pre-political rights of the people … on pain of death.
The anointed are hellbent on denying gun ownership to all but the elite and the privileged. SCOTUS rulings, bahh! It will take now more years of litigation to clear up the latest obstacles to the 2A, if at all.
Educating the masses to the power of the jury should be one effort we make. https://fija.org
Hochul and the NY Legislator are begging to be made examples of.
So what is included in “social media accounts”? Does it extend to a login unique to Ammoland? What about an account on a hobby oriented site, whether it be Arfcom or model airplanes? On the one hand it could take tens or hundreds of hours to review them all for some people, on the other hand it would be a broad, rich ground to find something objectionable. Either way it’s a loss for the applicant. Will it be overturned? Obviously yes. NY is simply employing delaying tactics in hopes of a “better” (for them) solution long term. Whether that be… Read more »
Now that is a damn good question!
I’m gunna stick my neck out and say it will be defined as whatever they want to stick their noses into. At least until the courts say otherwise.
The last time, NY legislators got their way for a hundred years.
The people aren’t going to wait another century.
Karen errr….Kathy dipshit needs to be hauled off in handcuffs and tried under TITLE 18, U.S.C., SECTION 242 Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States, … shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if bodily injury results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include the use, attempted… Read more »
NY legislators and elites want the population to be soft targets. Strong people would upset their plans.
Everything. Give them everything. Create more accounts. Set bots working in all your accounts to create even more content. Signal to noise ratio.
“A regrettably large share of our legal experiences operate not in the shadow of the Constitution and its constraints, but rather in the shadow of explicitly unconstitutional rules, actions, and orders. In the time it takes for improper Executive Orders to be reined in, for illicit administrative decisions to be corrected, and for misinterpretations of constitutional power to be overturned, so much of society’s activity is framed by what we might call the not-Constitution — all those acts of government that are deemed illegal only after they have caused enduring harm. A most troubling aspect of government power is its insistence on… Read more »
If Title 18 was utilized this crap would stop.
Philosophical question: What ever happened to the Constitutional statement that: When a law goes against the Constitution, that law IS NULL AND VOID!
It comes from Marbury v. Madison. Still used by the S. Ct. quite regularly.
And IGNORED by idiots like Karen errr…Kathy Hoshit.
Im waiting for a contempt charge aginst a judge from second or 9th with disbarment
AGREED! BUTTTTTTT, I am not holding my breath. I want to be awake when these ANTI-CONSTITUTIONAL TYRANTS ARE PUNISHED — according to the LAW!
Another reason to not live in New York…problem solved
I guess I’d be flagged because of remarks like this…the Governor needs a visit from about 500 yards.
Yeah – That’ll do it alright.
A lot of people have suggested the correct response is to say you have no social media accounts. This is foolish. Instead, make dozens of accounts on every platform you can think of and set up multiple bots for each account to repost news stories and inspirational quotes.
I’ll believe an injunction when I see it.
It’ll be a first.
NY Gov. should be held in contempt of court by SCOTUS is she continues with her plans. Marshall’s can enforce SCOTUS order.