Court Digest

California
Judge upholds ban on carrying guns in public
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A U.S. judge on Monday upheld California’s near-total ban on carrying guns in public even as protests in other states have seen counter-demonstrators armed with weapons.

U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller denied a review of a 2017 federal appeals court decision that upheld the law, which bans carrying concealed weapons in most urban areas and permits open-carry of weapons only if someone believes that a person is in immediate danger and law enforcement has failed to respond, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

However, Mueller also said gun owners can proceed with a lawsuit against California over the ban while awaiting a court hearing next month involving another open-carry ban in Hawaii.

An 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled on Sept. 24 to consider a challenge to the law, which effectively only permits police and security guards to openly carry firearms. Any ruling is at least several months away but it would be binding in nine states, including California.

Amy Bellantoni, a lawyer for the gun owners, said they may ask the appeals court to halt enforcement of the California law while their case is pending, the Chronicle reported.

Most states permit open carrying of firearms. They include Wisconsin, where an anti-racism demonstration over the police shooting of Jacob Blake ended in the killing of two protesters and the arrest of 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse of Illinois, who was carrying a rifle although he wasn’t legally of age to possess a gun.

Amy Bellantoni, a lawyer for the gun owners, said they may ask the appeals court to halt enforcement of the California law while their case is pending.

Illinois
Man who admitted embezzling millions sentenced to prison
CHICAGO (AP) — An Illinois accountant who pleaded guilty to embezzling millions of dollars from a trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago and others to finance a luxurious lifestyle was sentenced Monday to 16½ years in prison.

Sultan Issa, 46, of Hinsdale admitted earlier this year Art Institute trustee Roger L. Weston wasn’t his only victim. Issa, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud in January, said he also stole millions from individual investors, including $500,000 from a widow who trusted him to invest funds from her late husband’s estate and three former Chicago Blackhawks players.

In handing down the sentence, U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood said Issa’s misconduct was “startling” in its breadth and that he would not have been able to carry out the schemes without first gaining the “trust and affection” of his victims.

Most of the individual investors who lost money in Issa’s scams were not identified in court records. However, in his plea agreement, Issa admitted to embezzling from Weston’s family funds by forging signatures to gain control of assets and fraudulent documents to secure millions of dollars in loans. Issa also admitted to regularly lying to Weston about the status of the family’s assets and manipulating the books to make it appear investments were making money.

According to the plea agreement, Issa allegedly used his ill-gotten money to buy residential properties in several states, including Michigan and Montana, and property in Mexico. He also purchased two private jets, four yachts, about 60 firearms, and watches and jewelry.

Washington
Federal judge upholds state’s voter-approved gun regulations
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — A federal judge Monday affirmed a set of firearms regulations approved by Washington voters in 2018, ruling against a legal challenge raised by gun-right advocates.

Initiative 1639 raised the legal purchase age of a semiautomatic rifle to 21 and put in place enhanced background checks for their purchase. It also prohibited the sale of such rifles to out-of-state residents.

Voters passed the measure with nearly 60% support, but gun-rights advocates have vehemently opposed it. Some sheriffs have said they wouldn’t enforce the law because they believed it was unconstitutional.

But U.S. District Court of Western Washington Judge Ronald Leighton cited current federal law barring handgun sales to people under 21, as well as state laws stretching back to the 19th century that have imposed age restrictions on purchases, The Seattle Times reported.

Because, for much of the nation’s history, people between the age of 18 and 20 were considered minors, several courts have ruled that age restrictions fall outside the Second Amendment’s protections, he wrote in the order.

“These authorities demonstrate that reasonable age restrictions on the sale, possession, or use of firearms have an established history in this country,” Leighton wrote.

The lawsuit by several plaintiffs, including two Washington firearms dealers, the National Rifle Association (NRA) and Bellevue-based Second Amendment Foundation argued that I-1639 violates the Second Amendment, for prohibiting 18-to-20 year olds from buying semiautomatic rifles.

Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Bellevue-based Second Amendment Foundation, said the ruling was not a surprise and the group plans to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

In a statement, the head of the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, the group that campaigned for the initiative, applauded Leighton for upholding “commonsense provisions.”

Georgia
Judge orders state to extend deadline for absentee ballots
By KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press
ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge on Monday ordered Georgia to extend its deadline for accepting mail-in ballots for November’s general election from the close of polls on Election Day until three days later.

Georgia law says absentee ballots must be received by the close of polls on Election Day. U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross ordered that absentee ballots that are postmarked by Election Day and arrive at county election offices by 7 p.m. three business days later be counted.

The New Georgia Project, a voter registration group, and several individual voters had sued to demand the deadline extension and other changes. Ross declined to order any of the other changes they sought.

New Georgia Project CEO Nse Ufot applauded the judge’s ruling, saying in a statement that it “further confirms that we have a living breathing democracy that responds to the changing needs of society.”

The secretary of state’s office plans to immediately appeal the ruling, Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs said.

“Extending the absentee ballot receipt deadline is a bad idea that will make it nearly impossible for election officials to complete their required post-election tasks in the timeline that is required by law,” she said in a statement.

Lawyers for the state had argued that a later deadline could interfere with election officials’ ability to perform audits and other post-election tasks by certification deadlines.

Ross noted that Georgia election officials received a record number of absentee ballot requests for the June primary election after Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger encouraged Georgians to vote by mail amid concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. With the virus outbreak still going, there will likely be even more absentee ballot requests for the November general election, Ross wrote.

Even in the absence of an ongoing pandemic, absentee ballots have been rejected in past elections because they were received after the deadline. The plaintiffs have demonstrated that “Georgia voters can be and have been disenfranchised by the current receipt deadline through no fault of their own,” Ross wrote.

Ross wrote in the order that she is “reluctant to interfere with Georgia’s statutory election machinery.” But she said the risk of disenfranchisement is great and the “narrowly tailored” remedy of extending the deadline by three business days is appropriate.

“Extending the deadline would ensure that voters who receive their ballots shortly before Election Day are able to mail their ballots without fear that their vote will not count,” Ross wrote.

The lawsuit alleged that five aspects of Georgia law on absentee ballots can disenfranchise lawful voters in violation of their constitutional rights.

“Ordinarily, the impacts of these provisions on the right to vote are deeply troubling. But in the ongoing pandemic, they are constitutionally indefensible,” lawyers for the plaintiffs wrote in a court filing.

The lawsuit also asked the judge to order Georgia to provide prepaid postage to return absentee ballots; to order the state to allow voters to designate any third party to submit their absentee ballots; to establish a uniform set of standards for notifying voters about problems with absentee ballots; and to allow all voters to submit a single absentee ballot application for each election cycle.

Ross declined those requests, saying the burden placed on voters is not significant enough to outweigh the state’s interest in maintaining the current rules.

The lawsuit is one of several challenging the way Georgia handles elections. A long-running lawsuit filed by election integrity advocates challenges the constitutionality of Georgia’s voting machines and election system. Another filed by Democratic groups asks a judge to order Georgia election officials to take steps to prevent long lines on Election Day.


Oklahoma
Appeals court rejects Oklahoma City anti-panhandling law
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma City law that places restrictions on panhandling on street medians is an unconstitutional violation of free speech, a federal appeals court ruled on Monday.

The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver reversed the ruling of a federal judge in Oklahoma City who ruled in 2018 that the ordinance was constitutional.

Plaintiffs included two homeless men who used the medians to panhandle, including one who sold issues of the Curbside Chronicle newspaper, two joggers and a community activist who has used medians to protest and erect signs for his legislative candidacy.

The court found that medians have traditionally been used for expressive activity.

“Objectively, medians share fundamental characteristics with public streets, sidewalks and parks, which are quintessential public fora,” the court wrote.

American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma staff attorney Megan Lambert says she was “thrilled” with the court’s decision.

“This is the first time the 10th Circuit has ruled that medians are part of the traditional public fora that make up the city spaces with the most free speech protections,” Lambert said.

“Right now what it means is that protesters, panhandlers, Curbside Chronicle vendors, joggers, journalists ... can return to Oklahoma City medians to express themselves, solicit for lifesaving funds and advocate for political candidates.”

Attorneys for the city had argued medians were dangerous places for pedestrians to be and that the ordinance was necessary for public safety, but the court said there was no evidence to suggest that was the case.

“There is neither evidence of any accident involving a pedestrian on a median, fatal or not, nor evidence that a pedestrian on a median caused an accident or distracted a driver enough to compromise the safety of the pedestrian or the driver,” the court wrote.

An attorney for the city reiterated Monday that public safety was the city’s goal with the ordinance.

“Safety is always our number priority and was the reason for the adoption of the Median Safety ordinance,” Deputy Municipal Counselor Amanda Carpenter said in a statement. “However, after the 10th Circuit’s ruling today, the City will not be enforcing its ordinance prohibiting persons from sitting, standing or staying on Oklahoma City medians.”


Maryland
Feds: Former aide in Baltimore should get nearly three years
BALTIMORE (AP) — Federal prosecutors would like to see a former aide to ex-Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh spend nearly three years in prison.

The Baltimore Sun reports that Gary Brown Jr. is set to be sentenced on Sept. 11.

Prosecutors say that Brown carried out an “eight-year pattern of nonstop criminality” that included schemes involving the former mayor and schemes where he acted alone.

Among his more high-profile crimes is helping to carry out the former mayor’s “Healthy Holly” children’s book scheme. Pugh, who was sentenced to three years in federal prison, fraudulently sold her self-published children’s books to nonprofit organizations to promote her political career.

“Brown and Pugh worked closely to promote the scheme for their joint benefit,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “As the face of the company, Pugh was the one who lured customers to the scheme, but as the one in charge of operations, Brown managed the scheme.”

Prosecutors said that Brown solicited buyers for the books, wrote up invoices, deposited proceeds and performed other tasks.