{"id":1748,"date":"2014-03-29T16:24:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-29T16:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/2014\/03\/29\/there-are-amicus-briefs-and-then-there\/"},"modified":"2019-08-16T18:23:54","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T18:23:54","slug":"there-are-amicus-briefs-and-then-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/?p=1748","title":{"rendered":"There Are Amicus Briefs And Then There Is This One"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:12022,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.americanbar.org\\\/content\\\/dam\\\/aba\\\/publications\\\/supreme_court_preview\\\/briefs-v3\\\/13-193_pet_amcu_cato-pjo.authcheckdam.pdf&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20230608211707\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.americanbar.org\\\/content\\\/dam\\\/aba\\\/publications\\\/supreme_court_preview\\\/briefs-v3\\\/13-193_pet_amcu_cato-pjo.authcheckdam.pdf&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-19 08:26:01&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-22 15:54:07&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-27 01:58:27&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403}],&quot;broken&quot;:true,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-27 01:58:27&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>\nAmicus briefs are intended to be a way for interested parties to point out relevant aspects of the law to the judges or justices hearing a case. In the Second Amendment realm, the pro-2A amicus briefs come from the NRA, the Second Amendment Foundation, GOA, or other groups or individuals interested in securing the right to keep and bear arms. Conversely, the amicus briefs from those who take a more restrictive view would come from the Brady Campaign, the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, and others of their ilk. All of these briefs tend to cite relevant law pro or con to support their arguments. Even the best written of them tend to be, to put it politely, boring.<\/p>\n<p>But what about in other constitutional realms? They, too, tend to be boring. Thus, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.americanbar.org\/content\/dam\/aba\/publications\/supreme_court_preview\/briefs-v3\/13-193_pet_amcu_cato-pjo.authcheckdam.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the brief submitted by the Cato Institute and P. J. O&#8217;Rourke<\/a> in support of the petitioners in the case of <i>Susan B. Anthony List, et al v. Steven Driehaus, et al<\/i> stands out. It is, frankly, a hoot to read. While ostensibly written by Ilya Shapiro of the Cato Institute, one gets the feeling that it was heavily edited by P. J. O&#8217;Rourke. How else could you explain the first footnote?<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"tr_bq\"><p>\n<i>Pursuant to this Court\u2019s Rule 37.3(a), letters of consent<br \/>\nfrom all parties to the filing of this brief have been submitted to<br \/>\nthe Clerk. Pursuant to this Court\u2019s Rule 37.6,<br \/>\namici<br \/>\nstate that<br \/>\nthis brief was not authored in whole or in part by counsel for<br \/>\nany party, and that no person or entity other than<br \/>\namici<br \/>\nmade a<br \/>\nmonetary contribution its preparation or submission. <b>Also,<br \/>\namici<br \/>\nand their counsel, family members, and pets have all won<br \/>\nthe Congressional Medal of Honor.<\/b><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That sets the tone for the rest of the brief which speaks to such things as truthiness. Included are such gems as the following:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"tr_bq\">\n<ul>\n<li><i>After all, where would we be without the<br \/>\nknowledge t<b>hat Democrats are pinko-communist<br \/>\nflag-burners who want to tax churches and use the<br \/>\nmoney to fund abortions so they can use the fetal<br \/>\nstem cells to create pot-smoking lesbian ATF agents<br \/>\nwho will steal all the guns and invite the UN to take<br \/>\nover America?<\/b><\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><i><br \/>\n Driehaus voted for Obamacare, which the Susan B.<br \/>\nAnthony List said was the equivalent of voting for taxpayer-<br \/>\nfunded abortion.Amici<br \/>\nare unsure how true the allegation is given that the healthcare law seems to change daily, <b>but it<br \/>\ncertainly isn\u2019t as truthy as calling a mandate a tax. <\/b><\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><i><br \/>\nIt is thus apparently illegal in<br \/>\nOhio for an outraged member of the public to call a<br \/>\npolitician a Nazi or a Communist\u2014or a <b>Communist<br \/>\nNazi,<\/b> for that matter. That is no exaggeration: the<br \/>\nlaw criminalizes a misstatement made in \u201ccampaign<br \/>\nmaterials,\u201d which includes \u201cpublic speeches.\u201d <\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><i><br \/>\nEven in the absence of the First Amendment, no<br \/>\ngovernment agency could do a better job policing<br \/>\npolitical honesty than the myriad personalities and<br \/>\nentities who <b>expose charlatans, mock liars, lambaste<br \/>\narrogance, and unmask truthiness for a living.<\/b> <\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"tr_bq\">\n<ul>\n<li><i><br \/>\nPoliticians who are caught lying about<br \/>\nthemselves or others regularly attract more attention<br \/>\nfrom the press than the subject of the original lie.<br \/>\nThe typical outcome is that the lie or cover up<br \/>\nbecomes more important than the original accusation<br \/>\nor offense. And that dynamic predates smartphones<br \/>\nand their latest \u201capps.\u201d The impeachment of<br \/>\nPresident Clinton was not based on any sexual<br \/>\nactivities he might have engaged in with Monica<br \/>\nLewinsky, but over the attempt to cover it up.<br \/>\nSimilarly, President Nixon\u2019s resignation was<br \/>\nprompted by his obfuscations rather than his<br \/>\norchestration of a third-rate burglary. <b>And if this<br \/>\nCourt isn\u2019t yet convinced of this point, amici have<br \/>\nbut two words more on the subject: Anthony Weiner.<\/b><\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Read the whole thing and make sure you read the footnootes. You just have to wonder who is laughing harder &#8211; the law clerks or the justices of the Supreme Court. <\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amicus briefs are intended to be a way for interested parties to point out relevant aspects of the law&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,2665,21,2666],"class_list":["post-1748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-amicus-briefs","tag-cato-institute","tag-humor","tag-p-j-orourke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9802,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748\/revisions\/9802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}