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Weinstein lets NYC suits against dealers proceed
Not to say it shows a tiny bit of bias, but the AP release begains "A federal judge ruled Wednesday that more than a dozen out-of-state gun dealers have helped criminals terrorize New Yorkers and now must face the city in court."
UPDATE: how do all these suits wind up in front of Weinstein, when every federal district court I know of has random assignment of judges? I once talked to one of the manufacturer's defense lawyers, and he said that in one case they were served with the usual summons and complaint, but not with the cover sheet that has to be filed with them. When they did get the cover sheet, it turned out that plaintiffs' attorney had claimed (falsely) that Weinstein was already hearing a related case ("related" under the rules requires something more than "another case against a gun manufacturer"). The defense raised an objection, which Weinstein denied.
He told of some other wierdnesses in the case. E.g., at the end of plaintiffs' case, the defense moved to dismiss it as insufficient in a legal sense. The judge stated that yes, their legal theory was insufficient, but they could have gone ahead if they had proven a different theory, which he outlined, and then said he was going to permit them to reopen their case to prove the approach that he had set out.
Comments
Could a NY lawyer comment on how these nutty anti-gun lawsuits always get assigned to Judge Weinstein? I'm a lawyer, and our local District Court could not be gamed in the way it appears the SDNY is vulnerable. How does this work?
Posted by: Sertorius at August 16, 2007 01:25 PM
I just checked the FJC website, and Weinstein took senior status in 1993.
http://www.fjc.gov/public/home.nsf/hisj
There are 14 active judges in the EDNY, which makes it all the more intriguing that a senior status judge gets all the crazy gun cases.
I wonder if anyone has tried to raise this issue on appeal (such as defense counsel in the case where plaintiffs falsely claimed their case was related)?
Posted by: Sertorius at August 16, 2007 01:55 PM
I hate to defend an ignorant AP reporter, but I just started reading Judge Weinstein's order, and the "terrorize New Yor City" language comes straight out of page 8 of the order.
Quote from page 8 of order:
"Plaintiff has demonstrated, with a high degree of probability, that defendants’ knowing
parallel conduct in their individual states, relying on interstate commerce, have been responsible
for the funneling into New York of large quantities of handguns used by local criminals to
terrorize significant portions of the City’s population."
P.S. Thanks for the update about case assignment, very interesting and sad.
Posted by: Sertorius at August 16, 2007 01:59 PM
Gee, with judges like Weinstein, is there any wonder that so many of us have so little faith in the legal system. Notice I wrote "legal system". Not "justice system". Justice seems to have nothing to do with the law and courts these days.
Posted by: Jim at August 16, 2007 02:29 PM
Don't worry too much. They don't call him "Reversible Jack" for nothing.
Posted by: Letalis at August 16, 2007 03:38 PM
Where are the lawsuits filed in Alabama, Georgia, Virginia against Bloomberg and NYC for unlawful interference and obstruction of lawful commerce in venues separate from the locus of the crimes that occur in his jurisdiction? Perhaps his time would be better spent working on his real problem rather than creating problems for people hundreds of miles removed who are conducting their affairs in strict compliance with law.
Gun dealers affected directly by this should pool resources and sue NYC and Bloomberg's asses off. The manufacturers should offer financial aid and all gun dealers nationwide should consider a class action suit. Bloomberg should grow old and die running between courthouses defending himself for years to come.
Posted by: straightarrow at August 16, 2007 05:32 PM
The nicest thing I can say about Weinstein is that were he to have lived in Europe toward the middle of the last century he would have been a member of the "Judenrat" in whatever camp he was assigned.
Posted by: straightarrow at August 16, 2007 05:34 PM
After reading the opinion, I was struck by the number of conclusory cites to Weinstein's prior opinion in the NAACP lawsuit. Real chutzpah there.
Posted by: K-Romulus at August 17, 2007 11:17 AM
Weinstein must be the best judge money can buy.
Posted by: straightarrow at August 18, 2007 12:33 AM