Justice Kennedy Denies Emergency Motion to Block Gun Control Law

Second Amendment advocates hoping for promising news from the U.S. Supreme Court will have to wait a little longer. Last night Justice Anthony Kennedy denied an emergency motion from a group of California gun owners seeking to block the implementation of their city's ban on high-capacity magazines.

At issue in the case of Fyock v. City of Sunnyvale is that municipality's 2013 prohibition on the possession of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. The plaintiffs in the case charge the city with violating their constitutional rights, and therefore moved to have the law put on hold while they seek to vindicate those rights in federal court. But a federal district judge took a different view last week, refusing to the block the law because "the right to possess magazines having a capacity to accept more than ten rounds lies on the periphery of the Second Amendment right, and proscribing such magazines is, at bare minimum, substantially related to an important government interest." On appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit likewise refused to stop the law.

Justice Anthony Kennedy has now reached the same conclusion. Sunnyvale's ban on high-capacity magazines will go into effect as the legal challenge against it proceeds in court.