« So much for "common sense" gun laws | Main | Feds move to un-seal court records in Brian Terry murder »

Next Generatin RKBA Scholars conference

Summary here. I was there, and it was quite good... essentially a meeting of 25 new law profs, or those who are seeking to become law profs, and who are interested in the right to arms. At the evening dinner, Don Kates was presented with an award for his critical role in developing the modern (and correct) view of the right to arms. In 1983, he got his article into Michigan Law Review, one of the top five or ten. Before then, we'd been publishing in the lesser reviews. Hitting a major review was critical because the major names in con law read those, and it resulted in the major names publishing their own articles.

Judge Silberman of the DC Circuit, who wrote its opinion in Parker/Heller finding for an individual right, spoke at dinner. He was great. I learned one interesting practice tip. If you're heading for the Supreme Court, and at the Circuit level you lose before the three judge panel BUT know there is a favorable judge that wasn't on the panel, move for rehearing en banc (before the entire Circuit, rather than just a panel), even tho you know it will be denied. That gives the favorable judge(s) a chance to write a dissent from the denial of rehearing, and the dissent may carry weight with the Supreme Court when it decides whether to take the case.

UPDATE: in the 9th Circuit, rehearing en banc gets complicated, but I think all the 20+ judges get a vote, and hence a chance to dissent. If accepted, which rarely happens, it's a roll of the dice, since it's not heard by all the judges, but by a panel of ten plus the chief judge.