Nordyke v. King.

This case is also known as the Alameda County Gun Show Case. The Alameda Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance to ban the possession of guns on county property. This was done for the express purpose of banning gun shows at the county fairgrounds. Originally the case did not plead a Second Amendment cause of action.

However in his order denying our request for pre-trial injunctive relief, the district judge raised the Second Amendment in a gratuitous comment, stating that individuals had no standing to raise Second Amendment issues in a federal court. The issue lay dormant until the Silveira v. Lockyer opinion was issued by the Ninth Circuit. This opinion re-asserted the position that individuals have no Second Amendment standing in federal court. Our case was still pending the in Ninth Circuit when the Silveira opinion was filed, we asked for permission to file supplemental briefs in the Nordyke case on this issue. Because the Second Amendment was raised by the trial court, the issue was properly before the Nordyke appellate panel.

Our panel issued an opinion which sharply criticized the Silveira opinion and urged the entire Ninth Circuit to overturn Silveira in a procedure called en banc review. That did not happen and a writ of certiorari was filed with the United States Supreme Court. The writ was denied. The case went back to the trial court for fact gather and a potential trial. Upon return to the trial court, the plaintiffs sought to add a Second Amendment claim by amending their complaint. (i.e., we sought to perfect our Second Amendment claim by making the trial judge reject the claim in a separate order.)

Before the case could proceed to trial, the judge granted a motion filed by the defendants to dismiss the case without trial based on stipulated facts. That motion was granted and now the case will return to the Ninth Circuit on all grounds. Those grounds include allegations that the gun show ban violates the First Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment and the Second Amendment.