Latest news with #LB77
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lincoln-area gun owners tell Nebraska Supreme Court they have standing to sue city
The symbol of justice adorns one of the doors to the Nebraska Supreme Court. (Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner) LINCOLN — The lawyer for four Lincoln-area gun owners told the Nebraska Supreme Court during oral arguments Thursday that his clients shouldn't need to break a Lincoln city ordinance to gain the legal standing to sue and stop a weapons ban on city property. Jacob Huebert, a Texas-based lawyer for the Liberty Justice Center who represents the Nebraska Firearms Owners Association, argued that all four of his clients have altered their practice of arming themselves when visiting public parks and public spaces because of the ordinance. Thursday's case against Lincoln echoes the argument in a separate lawsuit against the City of Omaha over a similar ban. Both lawsuits argue Lincoln and Omaha cannot ban guns in parks, trails and other public spaces because the Legislature outlawed most local gun restrictions with Legislative Bill 77 in 2023. That law allowed Nebraskans to carry concealed handguns without a permit or state-mandated training. It also curbed some of the power of Nebraska's larger cities to more stringently regulate guns than Nebraska law does in the rest of the state. The Omaha case is essentially in a holding pattern in Douglas County District Court after a judge paused enforcement of an executive order from Republican Mayor Jean Stothert, who just advanced Tuesday to the May general election for a fourth term. Lawyers for both cities have argued that past practice and ordinances and the language of LB 77 itself left room for cities to maintain some ability to restrict weapons on property the cities directly control. Attorney General Mike Hilgers disagreed. On Thursday, Lincoln City Attorney Yohance Christie argued, as he had in his brief, that the people suing lacked standing because they had not broken the law and the city had not prosecuted anyone for the offense. He described the lawsuit as hypothetical. He argued a district court had correctly tossed out the lawsuit because the plaintiffs lacked standing. He said the people suing had suffered no 'injury.' Justices asked if he was saying they needed to break the law to sue. He said he wasn't suggesting that. 'The only issue in front of you today is standing,' Christie said. 'The standing inquiry is not whether the claim has merit. It's whether the plaintiff is the property party to assert the claim. … There's no reason to even get to the merits.' Huebert said Nebraska risked holding the plaintiffs to too high a standard to sue. He said they should be allowed to make their case, because the city took away their choice to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights and feel safe. 'In the federal courts and in other state courts, plaintiffs do not have to violate a law that carries criminal penalties,' Huebert said. 'To challenge that law in court, they don't have to subject themselves to arrest, prosecution or other enforcement actions.' Many of the justices' questions sidestepped the constitutional issue of whether the City of Lincoln overstepped by banning weapons in city parks and some public spaces. Instead, they focused on the narrower legal issue of whether the lower court had mistakenly decided that the gun owners lacked standing to sue. The Nebraska Supreme Court does not immediately decide such cases. It will issue a written order once the court decides. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Nebraska Supreme Court to weigh part of handgun restrictions lawsuit against Lincoln
Local restrictions on handguns are at issue in a lawsuit headed to the Nebraska Supreme Court. (Courtesy of Aristide Economopoulos/NJ Monitor) LINCOLN — The Nebraska Supreme Court has agreed to weigh in on whether a group of gun owners needs to run afoul of Lincoln weapons ordinances and an executive order by Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird before suing the city for enacting them. The Nebraska Firearms Owners Association, with help from the now-Texas-based Liberty Justice Center, sued the Cities of Lincoln and Omaha in December 2023, claiming in separate lawsuits that the cities had overstepped their legal authority to regulate guns under state law. Both lawsuits make similar but slightly different arguments based on the passage of Legislative Bill 77 from 2023, then-State Sen. Tom Brewer's law legalizing concealed carry of handguns without a permit or state-mandated training. A section of that law curbed the authority of cities governed by home-rule charters to restrict guns more stringently than the state. Both Omaha and Lincoln had used that bit of local control in the past to regulate guns and gang violence. After LB 77 became law, both cities tried to maintain bans on handguns in city parks and buildings and onto trails. Gaylor Baird and Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert defended the measures as necessary for public safety. Lincoln City Attorney Yohance Christie has argued that the mayor and city took action to preserve the safety and quality of life in Lincoln and complied with state law. Omaha City Attorney Matt Kuhse had argued Omaha acted legally. Christie had no immediate comment Monday through a spokesman. A district judge in Douglas County prevented Omaha from enforcing Stothert's gun-related executive order until the case can be heard, likely sometime this year. The Lincoln case has been bogged down in procedural questions. The question in the Lincoln case that the Supreme Court agreed this month to take up is whether a lower court erred in saying the Nebraska gun owners lacked legal standing to sue the city until a member is prosecuted for violating the order or ordinances. Lawyers for Liberty Justice Center argued in a filing that they should not have to wait to be prosecuted because the existence of the order and ordinances has made gun owners change their behavior in places governed by the city's approach. Patricia Harrold, president of the Nebraska Firearms Association, followed through on her testimony to the Omaha City Council that her organization would not let the cities flout the 2nd Amendment or state law. 'The laws and constitutions of Nebraska and the United States apply in Lincoln and Omaha just like they do in the rest of the state…,' Harrold said. 'They are entitled to exercise their right to keep and bear arms.' Jacob Huebert, president of the Liberty Justice Center, said in a statement that his team looked forward to proving that Nebraska's 2023 law prohibits local governments from restricting the 'right to carry … statewide.' 'We are pleased that the Nebraska Supreme Court considered this case important enough to review immediately, and we look forward to holding the mayor and the city accountable for their overreach,' Huebert said. The state's high court has yet to set a date for the hearing SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
