Update as of January 21, 2012.
After finally forcing Judge Snow of the case (Judge Snow was a former Arizona Court of Appeals judge and knows all the defendants on a first name basis! - he should have recused himself from the start), the new judge, Judge Teilborg, dismissed the case, saying, in a footnote, that judges have absolute immunity.
That's not exactly true, and we'll explain shortly.
After filing an appeal, our blogger filled a Notice with the Ninth Circuit, asking for Emergency status, per FRAP 27-3, since he is suffering an actual Constitutional deprivation. That's usually good enough for the Ninth. It has granted emergency status for First Amendment issues. Why not for the Second?
Well. we've answered our own question. That pesky Second Amendment. (Not to mention the "political incorrectness" of the Ninth circuit having to come down against their brethren in the Arizona Supreme Court. But judges are not gods, you know.)
The Ninth would not grant Emergency status. Nor did the judges grant Urgent or Expedited status, per FRAP 3-3.
In fact, now the Ninth is saying it wants to summarily dismiss the suit, claiming that judges have absolute immunity! Our blogger has two more weeks to "show cause" as to why this suit shouldn't be dismissed.
Well, there are a number of reasons. The most important is that, even if judges have absolute immunity (and remember our little jingle "Absolute immunity corrupts absolutely"), they do not have immunity when acting outside their judicial authority And making law from the bench is outside their authority.
Remember what this case is about. This is a case of first impression. (And so, MUST be tried in the Ninth.) The Justices of the Arizona Supreme Court have made an internal procedural rule that has substantive legal effect on all Arizona citizens. They have made a rule that, they say, allows them to deprive you of your Second Amendment right, despite the fact that the Arizona Legislature never gave them that authority.
(You may wish to read Michael Roth's petition about this in the Arizona Supreme Court's public forum. He's the guy whose gun rights were revoked for calling Quartzsite Town Councilman Joe Winsow a "turd.")
Any strong 2nd Amendment attorneys want to jump in and champion this good cause? Feel free to call our blogger at his number on the caption of his pleadings or you can leave a comment here. Comment moderation on this blog is on, which means you can comment privately.
