Chicago Must Pay for Denying Second Amendment Rights

Under federal law, the "prevailing party" in certain civil rights cases may collect "a reasonable attorney's fee" from the losing side. Yet Chicago and Oak Park, Illinois, which failed to persuade the Supreme Court last year that they did not need to respect the Second Amendment, have refused to pay the reasonable legal fees they owe to Alan Gura and the other attorneys responsible for the gun rights victory in McDonald v. Chicago. Thankfully, their stonewalling has now come to an end. In an opinion issued yesterday by the federal 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Frank Easterbrook described Chicago and Oak Park's argument as "not realistic" and ordered them to pay up.

(Via How Appealing.)

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Hey, an actual cost to wiping your ass with the Bill of Rights? Who would have thought?

[Realist]

Chicago is a shit hole. Only a few counties in Illinois are worth living in. Cook is NOT one of them.

[Chicago Sucks]

YUP

[JB]

Chicago has many positive attributes; the government is not one of them.

That applies to many places in the US and the world. What would be the common theme there?

Government sucks.

[chaussures air max]

cc~~

[R C Dean]

Thankfully, their stonewalling has now come to an end.

Not until they actually cut the check, it hasn't.

[Doktor Kapitalism]

How probable is it that they'll actually pay? 2% chance? 1%?

[prolefeed]

I think it is probable that they will pay many multiples of the cost of writing such a check appealing the decision, possibly all the way to SCOTUS.

Assuming that this is a done deal because yet another judge said they were in the wrong seems a bit clueless about how the Chicago govt has behaved so far.

[Akatsukami]

ISTR that a homeowner won a judgment against BoA that the latter refused to pay. Recently the local sherrif's department padlocked the doors of the local office and hauled away the furnishings, wherepon BoA coughed up the cash.

If Barky loses next year, will we see Rahm Emanuel out on the street whilst U.S. marshals clean out his den?

[cynical]

I've said it before, but I hope SCOTUS eventually gets tired of their intransigence and comes up with the 2nd amendment version of forced busing. Although I'd prefer they simply declare the city government illegitimate and dissolve Chicago as a polity.

[Lurker Kurt]

If only Daley were still mayor.

I would love to see him stutter and blather at a press conference.

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

NRA told me this yesterday, in a personal e-mail from Wayne LaPierre directly to ME!

[L4F]

They still have a ton of draconian regulations to make it almost impossible for anyone to buy a gun, except for criminals of course, those are never affected by gun control laws.

http://libertarians4freedom.blogspot.com/

[Chicago Sucks]

That's not entirely true. You still need a state issued FOID card (easy to get by mail), but then you have to take a 4-hour "training" class (useless), then you have to get a firearm permit which involves getting your fingerprints taken at a shithole police office in the hood with limited office hours, then you have to submit the application to register the firearm and even then there are restrictions on the number of firearms you can register in a certain time period. Total process took me about a month and cost a few hundred dollars. Although it's my understanding that for most people it takes much longer. It should be noted that the opportunity cost of me missing work driving around having forms stamped was about half the cost of the firearm.

In either case, it's fucking bullshit.

[Gregory Smith3]

You made my point, here in TN all I had to do was show I've been living here for 60 days, bring my driver's license, submit to the instant background check (which because of the weather took a lot longer than 30 minutes), and that was it. The cost of the background check? About $10.

Of course, getting a concealed carry license is a different story, but not nearly the pain in the ass it would be in non-Southern states with the exception of Vermont and maybe Montana where I hear you don't even need a CCW.

[Brown Line]

C.S., you didn't mention that the city sprang this bullshit not just on people who were purchasing new firearms, but on people who had already registered their firearms. Anyone wishing to re-up their registration (which had to be done annually) has to jump through all those hoops.

Worse, neither the city nor the state publishes a list of trainers who are certified to provide the four hours of training, and are dragging their feet on issuing this certification to people who have been performing firearms training for decades. It gun control by bureaucratic obstruction, pure and simple: the Democratic Party doesn't want law-abiding citizens to exercise their Second Amendment rights, and will do whatever they can to stop you.

[L4F]

That's a great point. Ironically, the liberals think is a good thing! They want to make it as hard as possible for law-abiding people to get guns while doing community organizing and diversity seminars to deal with crime.

[Michael Ejercito]

It gun control by bureaucratic obstruction, pure and simple: the Democratic Party doesn't want law-abiding citizens to exercise their Second Amendment rights, and will do whatever they can to stop you.

I wonder if courts would tolerate an identical policy with respect to marriage licenses.

[Milo]

Pretty much the same here in "Doity Joisey".
Oh, and forget a CC permit. My friend who has had one in both NYC and here for going on 40 years says he hs to renew every two years and it's getting more and more Chicken-shit to the point he almost ready to give up.

[Res Publica Americana]

Chicago is such an unbelievable shithole. I wonder if we could make it the nation's largest toxic refuse site?

Oh, wait, we're a little late.

[fish]

I wonder if we could make it the nation's largest toxic refuse site?

Sorry I think Detroit won this one. You could lower your sights a bit and petition to host the Olympics.

[R]

They tried that; it didn't work. Even the Olympics has standards.

[Chicago Sucks]

You haven't seen Gary Indiana.

[Jim]

I'm going to mail them various dictionary clippings with all the definitions of the words, "shall", "not", "be", and "infringed".

[Res Publica Americana]

They'll say, "Sorry, senor, no hablo ingles"

[P Brooks]

How long will we have to wait for some MSNBC "news analyst" to make the case that Evul TeaBagsterdz are budget-busting crooks who only want to loot the treasury of Chicago and steal food from the mouths of deserving citizens whose most fervent wish is to live in gun-free bliss?

[A. Freeman]

Just the ruling that Chicago is obligated to pay the plantiffs is SWEET. I wonder if the Brady Bunch or Bloomberg's MAIG will fork over the money on behalf of the City.

It's for sure that seeing Rhambo Deadfish fork over the loot for denying citizens their 2A rights would be one of the highlights of my life. Especially if he was forced to make a donation as well to the NRA - ILA.

[rst]

What, were they practicing for Rahm...?

[News of the Future]

"The Court has made its ruling. Now, let it enforce it."

[cynical]

SCOTUS might be pussies, but they are federal pussies who still remember how to deal with a state or city government that thinks it can disrespect their authoritah. Presidents are another matter.

[John Stephens]

Two words: Federal Marshals.

[JEM]

Three words: Seize Rahm's Desk.

[Realist]

It is little wonder that the sack of shit with big ears got his political start in Chicago.

[WotZoo]

Those guys make a lot of sense dude. Wow

http://www.hide-your-ip.at.tc

[crypticguise]

Unless you've owned a very profitable business in Chicago (is that possible) for a long time why would anyone want to stick around a city and state that is quickly sliding turning into a rathole?

[Doc Merlin]

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

[Citytrekker]

Florida, New York, New Jersey and California. I've visted those this year and each place is a "craphole" that have no idea how to create liveable cities. If you call hiding away in a gated community a good life then you probably not going to like NY, Chicago or LA.

[bgarrett]

It is VERY wrong for the government to pay out money to someone that government employees have treated poorly.
The government has NO MONEY except what is has collected from the taxpayers. So its the taxpayers money that the government hands out while the evil government employee who made the decision gets away scot-free.

[squarooticus]

Until you solve the sovereign immunity problem, there will be no ideal outcome in cases like this. One can't even argue that the payout will discourage bad law, precisely because those creating the bad laws aren't on the hook for damages resulting from court cases challenging them. YAR why government sucks.

[ptl]

Why is the Democrat Party afraid of citizens owning guns?

[Quaestor]

Garnish Rahm's salary until the plaintiff's legal costs are paid in full.

[mac]

Slap Rahm's ass in jail for contempt of court until Chi pays up. Stick him in with the Aryan Nations boys. That check will be cut at faster-than-light speed.

[Free Domain]

They should have to pay.

[Citytrekker]

Chicago's crime has gone down and it is not in the top ten of any crime category, yet it is the 3rd largest city in America.(yes, crime has gone down nationally as well) Chicago has a higher standard of living than all major cities in the US except for Boston and San Francisco and ranks 45th in the world.

Gun crime has gone down again this year.