Inside Track
Double Win for U.S. Constitution
On October 22, Judge Glenn Suddaby of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York granted a permanent injunction against a public-housing authority in Cortland, New York. It was a double win for the U.S. Constitution, as the injunction prohibits officials of the federally funded Cortland Housing Authority (CHA) both from enforcing unconstitutional lease language infringing on the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the right to keep and bear arms, and from interfering with the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech on the government entity’s Facebook page or other social media.
The leases the plaintiffs signed obligated them “not to display, use, or possess, or allow members of Tenant’s household or guest, to display, use, or possess, any firearms … or other weapons … anywhere on the property of the CHA.” However, Suddaby’s injunction enjoins CHA “from enforcing the Firearms Ban or other bans on firearms against the Plaintiffs and other CHA tenants.” The judge further stipulated that any changes in the lease agreement must protect current and future tenants’ right to bear arms, ordering that the CHA lease comply “with the Second Amendment in all respects and … not violate the Second Amendment in any respect.”
Apparently, before filing suit in January this year, the three plaintiffs — Robert Hunter, Elmer Irwin, and Doug Merrin — used CHA’s Facebook page and other social media to castigate the authority for infringing on their rights under the Second Amendment, and the authority shut down those disparaging comments.
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