On June 1, 2012 an en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its ruling in Nordyke v. King.
The Court ruled that it would hold Alameda County to its concession that the gun show promoter plaintiffs could hold a gun show on the Alameda County fairgrounds property, so long as the guns were secured to the exhibit tables with a wire cable.
In essence, Alameda County blinked. There is a dispute between the parties about exactly when that happened, but after years of maintaining that its ordinance prohibited gun shows entirely, the County decided it would rather switch its position than continue to fight the lawsuit. The en banc panel jumped on that position in reaching its decision.
The Nordyke v. Alameda case was filed in 1999 by gun show promoters Russ and Sallie Nordyke challenging an Alameda County ordinance that bans guns on county property (effectively banning the gun show at the county fairgrounds). The suit alleged multiple legal grounds to invalidate the ordinance, including a Second Amendment claim. Over the next 13 years the case bounced around the trial and appellate courts, in both the state and federal court systems. Copies of court filings and more information about the case is posted at http://michellawyers.com/nordyke-v-king/.
NRA provided financial and logistical support to the case since it was filed. Noted NRA/CRPA attorneys including Don Kates, Stephen Halbrook, and Chuck Michel all provided assistance through several amicus brief campaigns, and the NRA subsidized the case by advancing the associated costs for years. But San Jose attorney Don Kilmer, representing the Nordykes as the owners of the gun show, deserves special recognition for seeing the case through for all these years.
Click here for more on this victory from NRA-ILA.
