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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   29715 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 12, 2022

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I don't think that was intentional:

By the time of the Supreme Court decision, Miller had been killed, and since Layton made a plea bargain after the decision was handed down, there were no claimants left to continue legal proceedings.

It... was, albeit in a different way than normal test cases are selected. From the wikipedia summary :

The district court held that the section of the Act that made it unlawful to transport an unregistered firearm in interstate commerce was unconstitutional as violative of the Second Amendment. It accordingly sustained the demurrer and quashed the indictment. The government took a direct appeal to the Supreme Court.

In reality, the district court judge was in favor of the gun control law and ruled the law unconstitutional because he knew that Miller, who was a known bank robber and had just testified against the rest of his gang in court, would have to go into hiding as soon as he was released. He knew that Miller would not pay a lawyer to argue the case at the Supreme Court and would simply disappear. Therefore, the government's appeal to the Supreme Court would surely be a victory because Miller and his attorney would not even be present at the argument.

From the underlying summary by Fyre:

On June 2, 1938, Miller and Layton were both indicted on one count of violating 26 U.S.C. ยง 1132(c) by transporting an un-taxed short-barreled shotgun in interstate commerce. Both Miller and Layton pleaded guilty, but Ragon refused to accept their plea and appointed Paul E. Gutensohn as counsel. [emphasis added]...

Before he became a judge, Ragon represented the Fifth District of Arkansas in Congress from 1923 to 1933.111 As a congressman, he was a vocal advocate of federal gun control. In 1924, Ragon introduced an unsuccessful bill prohibiting the importation of guns in violation of state law,112 and vigorously supported another bill prohibiting the mailing of most pistols, which eventually passed in 1927. Basically, Ragon wanted to prohibit firearms used by criminals, including pistols.

I don't think Ragon intended for Miller to be dead at the time of the decision -- that actually risked making the case moot, if it had been discovered in time! -- but he almost certainly picked Miller as a particularly unsympathetic case, unlikely to present any defense, and unlikely to receive (or even be able to accept if offered) support from outside organizations. Ragon's unusual case profile (declaring the law null in a memorandum opinion) made it particularly narrow and fast for appeal, and easy for the prosecutors to request appeal at SCOTUS. And the clear mismatch with his previous and later political views make it very unlikely he was being a stickler for this one case.

Interesting! I wasn't aware of any of that.

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