Source: http://www.2awny.com/2019/03/jim-ostrowski-esq-delivers-two-crippling-blows-to-ny-gun-control-in-short-eight-day-span/
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 17:26:02+00:00

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March 6, 2019 | BUFFALO, N.Y. – Attorney Jim Ostrowski delivered two hard-hitting indictments of the unconstitutional New York State gun control regime in as many weeks. The most recent was issued on Feb. 28, 2019 as an oral argument to justices of the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Fourth Department (ORAL ARGUMENT VIDEO ABOVE).
Eight minutes into his oral argument, Ostrowski directly attacked the intermediate scrutiny legal standard that acts as the cornerstone of New York State’s unconstitutional gun control regime, including imperial edicts like the SAFE Act, the pistol permitting system, and the newly-minted red flag law. Intermediate scrutiny allows New York courts to broadly define the state’s ever-expanding burdens on Second Amendment exercise as related in some way to the government’s interest in public safety, and therefore constitutional. Rarely is such a lax standard employed to determine the legality of burdens on a fundamental civil right, as the Second Amendment was declared to be in the U.S. Supreme Court case District of Columbia v. Heller. When the nation’s highest court reviews its first ever New York gun law case later in 2019 – NYSRPA v. NYC – it’s conservative majority is expected to declare that intermediate scrutiny is not the correct test to use when judging Second Amendment cases, and strict scrutiny is. Ostrowski pointed this out in his oral argument.
The court was receptive to Ostrowski’s contention that the U.S. Supreme Court is likely to shed light, later this year or early next, on the correct standard for judging Second Amendment cases, and that a move to strict scrutiny would impact the outcome of the Wassell case. However, there was resistance to the notion that a Second Amendment issue was squarely before the court.
Prior to Peradotto’s attempt to sidestep Ostrowski’s demand that the court focus on Second Amendment violation as a component of the Wassell case, Associate Justice Stephen Lindley argued that Ostrowski’s claim that the state attorney general lacked the jurisdictional authority to prosecute Wassell in the first place could be a winner.
The remainder of the court’s justices appeared to agree with and support Lindley’s view, but shied away from Ostrowski’s pronouncements on the Second Amendment. Should the court rule in favor of Ostrowski’s “lack of prosecutorial authority” argument, the indictment against Wassell would be dismissed. This would no doubt be an excellent outcome for Benjamin Wassell and for Second Amendment supporters across New York State. However, it would also allow the court to avoid addressing the persuasive Second Amendment violation arguments Ostrowski leveled at its presiding justices. In so doing, the court would be able to sidestep the significant research effort and public controversy associated with wading into legal arguments directly associated with Second Amendment protections. This appeared to be the direction the court would prefer to take in deciding the Wassell case, as it proceeded to hammer Assistant New York State Attorney General Matthew Keller on the prosecutorial authority issue once he stood to rebut Ostrowski.
“Ya got a problem here,” Associate Justice Nancy Smith said, referencing a potential lack of prosecutorial authority on the part of the state as Keller prepared to deliver his comments.
Keller strenuously argued to the contrary, but was rebuffed several times by the court. Seemingly conceding defeat, he moved on to address Ostrowski’s claims regarding poor jury instruction, claiming this issue actually benefited Wassell, and then closed by addressing Ostrowski’s Second Amendment argument. At this point, Keller was forced to address the two elephants in the room: The NYSRPA v. NYC case and the very real potential that the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn intermediate scrutiny and install strict scrutiny as the standard for judging Second Amendment cases.
Because the nullification of intermediate scrutiny would destroy the foundation of Keller’s arguments supporting Wassell’s conviction – as well as the state’s rationale for the SAFE Act, the pistol permitting system, the red flag law, and the remainder of its unconstitutional gun control regime in total – Keller began to frantically grasp at straws. He asserted that, should NYSRPA v. NYC result in a decision favorable to Benjamin Wassell, the state would simply argue that the outcome of the NYSRPA case does not apply to the Wassell conviction because the latter involves “military-style assault weapons,” and that intermediate scrutiny is still the correct standard for the Wassell case. It would be quite difficult for the state to argue this in a manner that would be persuasive to any state or federal court in the wake of a freshly-inked U.S. Supreme Court decision clearly indicating strict scrutiny is the appropriate standard for all Second Amendment cases. However, Keller did not end his verbal flailing there. He took it a step further with his final claim, devoid of logic and dripping with fear of the beatdown awaiting New York gun control in the halls of America’s highest court.
It is clear that Keller, and by extension, Imperial Criminal Cuomo and his minions occupying the imperial palace in Albany, are terrified at the prospect of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the intermediate scrutiny standard as applied to Second Amendment cases. Such an action on the part of the court would signal the death knell for New York gun control, and the state has real reason to worry that their fear will make the jump to reality.
For confirmation of this, the state need look no further than the comments made by U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit Judges John Walker, Jr. and Dennis Jacobs in reply to Ostrowki’s Feb. 20, 2019 oral argument in Libertarian Party of Erie County v. Cuomo, which seeks to overturn the New York State pistol permit requirement on constitutional grounds, and is just one step away from U.S. Supreme Court review (ORAL ARGUMENT AUDIO BELOW).
Following Ostrowki’s comments, all built on several other compelling contentions relative to the unconstitutional and arbitrary nature of the state pistol permit requirement as outlined in his court brief, U.S. Circuit Judge John Walker, Jr. proactively raised the clear and present threat that NYSRPA v. NYC poses to the intermediate scrutiny standard, which is squarely before the court in the case of Libertarian Party of Erie County v. Cuomo.
In response, Ostrowski made the point that intermediate scrutiny gives zero weight to the right of citizens to defend themselves against a tyrannical government and private crime.
When the lawyer representing the New York State Attorney General’s Office rose to rebut Ostrowski’s argument, Judge Walker immediately pressed her to likewise comment on the overlap between NYSRPA v. NYC and Libertarian Party of Erie County v. Cuomo regarding the intermediate scrutiny standard as applied to the Second Amendment.
“At some point, could you just mention the case of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association against New York City that’s before the [U.S.] Supreme Court, and the extent to which there’s overlap of the [intermediate scrutiny] issues?” Judge Walker said.
The state’s attorney tried to sidestep Judge Jacobs’ insightful criticism of her argument. She attempted to construe the definition of a non-law-abiding citizen, described in Heller as an individual convicted of a felony, as simply an example of unlawful behavior. The state’s attorney encouraged the court to take a more expansive view of what constitutes a non-law-abiding citizen than what Heller really allows. Alas, she was not granted a reprieve from further incredulity. Judge Walker piled on more.
“Don’t you think that the current case [NYSRPA v. NYC] that’s pending in the [U.S] Supreme Court, which bears upon the licensing system in New York or, it’s actually, in that case, I guess, it’s the city, the decision in that case would flesh out Heller and McDonald in terms of the extent to which states can regulate in this area, and that that is important to our decision?” Walker said in response to the state.
The state’s attorney, somewhat frustrated, responded that the case before the court should be viewed as a simple issue to solve via immediate dismissal, and that the court should not be concerned with construing some aspects of the Second Amendment right or elements of the methodology for evaluating Second Amendment claims.
Once again, the state’s argument failed to land, and Judge Walker pushed back.
Stunned that Judge Walker pulled away the current and completely arbitrary New York State pistol permit issuance guidelines and the intermediate scrutiny standard as key supports for her argument, the state’s attorney was left flailing. Awash in her moment of disbelief, she fell back on her previously-detailed and overly broad ‘non-law-abiding citizen’ argument, and conceded that awaiting the U.S. Supreme Court’s guidance by way of NYSRPA v. NYC on the intermediate scrutiny issue may be a viable approach.
The common thread between the NYSRPA, Libertarian Party, and Wassell cases is intermediate scrutiny. Once again, this is the legal standard that acts as the cornerstone of New York State’s unconstitutional gun control regime, allowing courts staffed by progressives to broadly define the state’s ever-expanding burdens on Second Amendment exercise as related in some way to the government’s interest in public safety, and therefore constitutional. As noted earlier, rarely is such a lax standard employed to determine the legality of burdens on a fundamental civil right, as the Second Amendment was declared to be in Heller.
Based on the feedback provided by the judges who heard Feb. 2019 oral arguments in Libertarian Party of Erie County v. Cuomo and The People of the State of New York v. Benjamin Wassell respectively, it is clear that both the U.S. Court of Appeals and the New York State Supreme Court believe the intermediate scrutiny standard will be addressed by the U.S. Supreme Court in NYSRPA v. NYC later this year into early next. The New York State Supreme Court, Fourth Department plans to decide the Wassell case on either March 15 or 22 of this year, and appears poised to sidestep the Second Amendment issue by simply accepting Ostrowski’s “lack of prosecutorial authority” argument as detailed earlier, and voiding the indictment against Wassell. The U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit will likely take several months to decide the Libertarian Party case, and appears content to await the guidance likely to be offered by the U.S. Supreme Court on the intermediate scrutiny standard so that they can rule in a manner consistent with America’s highest court.
Given prior remarks and decisions on the Second Amendment provided by the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court, it is likely that the intermediate scrutiny standard will be replaced in 2020 with strict scrutiny as the proper lens for deciding Second Amendment cases via the anticipated NYSRPA decision. This would result in the destruction of imperial edicts like the SAFE Act, the pistol permitting system, and the newly-minted red flag law, as this is the legal foundation upon which these unconstitutional schemes are able to stand. Based on the verbal flailing demonstrated by New York States’ attorneys during the Libertarian Party and Wassell oral arguments, this prospect clearly terrifies the imperial criminals that run New York State, as well as their progressive allies. And, for all the reasons outlined above, their fears are well-founded. The composition of the U.S. Supreme Court in concert with the New York-specific Second Amendment cases still active in lower courts have set the stage for the death of New York gun control.
This is truly a defining moment for Second Amendment civil rights in New York State, and beyond.

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