Today was the date we’ve all been waiting for since back in late January when we filed the legal challenge to JB Pritzker’s gun and magazine ban. The hearing was initially planned to last about two hours. It ran closer to 3.5 hours and the state got an overwhelming majority of that time. Why? Well, the judge was skeptical about many (most?) of their arguments and asked them a lot of probative questions.
It surely looked like the judge read our pleadings carefully. It also appeared to observers that he looked over almost two thousand pages of filings on behalf of the defendants. In fact, he presented some slides from their filings and asked questions of the defendant’s attorney. Obviously Kwame’s lawyer wasn’t a gun guy. He was, in short, swimming in the deep water as a very novice swimmer.
The call-in number was a complete failure… but Todd Vandermyde and some others were there. Their hot take?
In speaking with Todd, he said we did pretty well. Things got bogged down in minutia here and there, and we didn’t get to hit some of the points we wanted to make. However, those things happen in oral arguments. That’s why you have written pleadings.
Now we sit and wait a week or two for the judge to evaluate the briefs and formulate his decision (and write it). Clearly Judge Stephen McGlynn will be spending some long nights working on this in the coming days. He’s going to earn his salary in writing this decision, which will likely be one of the biggest of his career in terms of its impact.
For those wanting more details, Greg Bishop (from talk radio and The Center Square) was also present in court and he tweeted the hearing live.
You can look over this tweets here, even if you don’t have a Twitter account.
I’d also keep an eye on The Center Square for a news report on Bishop’s take on the hearing. I’ll look these over tonight over a few fingers of Bulleit Bourbon. Todd says his computer is in the shop so he may not have a video tonight on his Freedom’s Steel YouTube channel until tomorrow.
In short, don’t panic. We did okay today. Okay and then some.
Kwame, on the other hand, has lots of reasons to be anxious over today’s hearing.
Read through the entire tweet stream. I am certainly not qualified to opine on what might be in another’s mind, but it appears this judge did a LOT of homework on the technical aspects of this case. There were many probative questions given to both sides. McGlynn challenged both sides extensively.
If I have to guess, I say that the States’ arguments were not persuasive to McGlynn at all. He seemed to be clearly indicating in some of his statements that he does not consider the gun to be the reason for the violence. In one exchange, he brought up things like what are driving youths to seek this path, what medications are they on, etc. My gut tells me we will get our injunction, and then the fight really begins to have the law tossed in total. Stopping the clock is the first step.
The judge from all I’ve heard is fair. Someone said he is a gun owner and used to be an ISRA member. (Used to be… like many of us). Thanks to you, John, I’m optimistic my donations were well spent.
Like many others, I tried getting in on the call but after being on hold for far too long, I remembered that the amazing Greg Bishop might have some updates and lo and behold, he was typing out play-by-play commentaries as fast as he could type to the point his laptop must’ve overheated and succumbed to the fury of fingers. Undeterred by this, the intrepid young reporter took to his hand held device and tapped on it like he was in tied for first place in a drum solo competition. Top notch reporting! I hope he gets an award for all his hard work on this topic alone (Or at least someone buys his lunch tomorrow!)
Speaking of hard work and fingers, enjoy your bourbon break tonight, Mr. Boch, you certainly deserve it. Looking forward to a bigger reason to celebrate next week. Salud!
Sounds optimistic, wonder if the judge commentated on the excessive papers from the State Attorney’s office. Was Kwame da fool in court or did he delegate to others to cover his rear? wi7sh I could have been a “fly on the wall” to watch the proceedings.
Our guns our rights our family protection
I thought only Kamala did orals. You know, Willie Brown, or is that Brown, Willie?