Kachalsky v. Cacace – Oral Arguments Before The 2nd Circuit Court Of Appeals

Kachalsky v. Cacace was the second case filed by the Second Amendment Foundation after their Supreme Court win in McDonald. It challenged the State of New York’s requirement to show “good cause” before the issuance of a carry permit. Judge Cathy Seibel using intermediate scrutiny found for the defendants and against the plaintiffs saying that the State of New York had an important governmental interest in regulating carry. She also said that the Second Amendment protections as affirmed in Heller only applied to “hearth and home.”

Alan Gura filed a notice of appeal on September 12, 2011 to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. The oral hearings were finally held late last month on August 22nd. The judges hearing the case were Judge Robert Katzmann (Clinton appointee), Judge Richard Wesley (George W. Bush appointee), and Judge Gerald Lynch (Obama appointee).

The 2nd Circuit does not automatically publish the audio file of the oral hearings unlike some other circuits like the 7th. Fortunately, thanks to a generous donor who paid for the audio files, Maryland Shall Issue was able to get a copy and has posted them on their website. You can find it here. The entire hearing runs for about 36 minutes.

Thanks to the contemporaneous notes sent to me by a reader who attended the hearings, I was able to follow most of it. The primary questioners of Alan Gura were Judge Wesley and Judge Lynch with the occasional question from Judge Katzmann. I have to admit that their accents are so similar to me that it was hard for me to distinguish between them.

Judge Wesley did admit to being an avid hunter but then went on to say that he didn’t know if handguns were the preferred weapon of choice for home defense. I guess it wouldn’t be too smart to call a judge a Fudd.

I think it went well enough and I share Sebastian’s cautious optimism on the outcome of the case. Alan Gura is an exceptionally skilled appellate attorney and held his own very well. When the judges would go off on tangents he would still make sure to reiterate his essential points regarding the Second Amendment, Heller, and carry.