A federal judge has delivered a major victory for supporters of the Second Amendment.
According to Reuters, U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle ruled Friday that a federal law barring individuals from possessing a firearm in post offices is unconstitutional.
Mizelle, who was appointed during the Trump administration, cited a 2022 Supreme Court ruling, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, that expanded the right to bear arms in public places.
“A blanket restriction on firearms possession in post offices is incongruent with the American tradition of firearms regulation,” Mizelle wrote. “Nothing in Supreme Court dicta establishes that the United States may ban firearms in all government buildings.
“Second, the scope of the Second Amendment right is a legal question, not a factual one, and I need not hold an evidentiary hearing to resolve it,” she continued.
“Instead, the government bears the burden to identify historical evidence supporting its challenged regulation.”
The ruling came as Mizelle dismissed an indictment against Emmanuel Ayala charging him with illegally carrying a firearm in a federal building.
Ayala, a U.S. Postal Service truck driver in Tampa, was charged after being found with a Smith & Wesson 9mm handgun. He had a concealed weapons permit.
The judge did not dismiss a separate charge against Ayala for resisting arrest.
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In her opinion, Mizelle also wrote that banning firearms in all federal facilities such as the post office amounts to a “nullification” of the Second Amendment.
“At some point, when twenty-eight percent of land in the United States is owned by the federal government and many ordinary activities require frequenting a ‘Federal facility,’ the government’s theory would amount to a nullification of the Second Amendment right altogether,” she wrote.
Legal scholar Jonathan Turley has speculated that the ramifications of the ruling are significant that the case could go all the way up to the Supreme Court.
The court declared the ban on packing in a post office is inconsistent “with this nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.” Given the implications of the ruling for all federal facilities, the case could well make its way to the Supreme Court. https://t.co/TgBqsBQ8n4
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) January 14, 2024
“Given the implications of this ruling (not just for postal facilities but all federal facilities), it could well make its way to the Supreme Court,” Turley wrote on his blog.
Mizelle, meanwhile, has a record of standing up for Americans’ constitutional rights.
In 2022, she ruled against attempts by the federal government to demand airlines and public transportation services to force passengers to wear masks while traveling on aircraft, trains, buses and other forms of transport.
