Steady On

Yesterday was a big day at the U.S. Supreme Court for our case, Gazzola v. Hochul, and for the related case of Antonyuk v. James.  The results will be released Monday next at 9:30 a.m.  If at least four Justices vote in favor, certiorari will be granted and one or both cases will advance to further written submissions, oral arguments, and a written opinion from the Court. 

The case(s) may otherwise be denied or carried forward.  A carry forward would place the case(s) on the calendar for discussion, amongst the Justices, behind closed doors on Thursday, June 20, 2024.  The last case conference of this term.  There is a procedural possibility, the case(s) could be carried forward, again, across the summer recess to the first case conference date of next term, or, on Friday, October 11, 2024.

The step is perhaps the most elusive to understand.  We have rights to file new cases in district courts throughout the 50 states and U.S. territories.  We have rights of appeal to the circuit courts.  But one must request permission and be accepted to have an issue heard and decided at the nation’s high court.

The winnowing upwards thins the oxygen.  In 2022, when we started Gazzola v. Hochul, we were part of 309,102 civil cases filed.  At year end, with cases taking more than one year, there were 638,264 federal civil lawsuits in progress (3.4%).  At the U.S. Courts of Appeals in 2023, as we fought our way through a Second Circuit appeal in Gazzola v. Hochul, we were one of 21,837 civil appeals.  During the 2022 Term, a mere 68 cases were argued, resulting in 55 signed opinions.  Those few cases were selected from 4,159 filings (1.6%).

 Pending is our fourth petition/application to SCOTUS since 12.29.2022.  (It is the second application/petition to SCOTUS for Antonyuk.)

I thrive on feedback, but have received nothing more than three denials from SCOTUS.  Making improvements has become the bane of my existence.  The number one study I have made is winning petitions granted cert and winning oral arguments resulting in 9-0 decisions.  Putting aside the fact of “deny,” “deny,” “deny,” it has been a thrilling year of study of our U.S. Supreme Court and its Justices.

Much is consistent with what more than thirty years of litigation in federal and state courts brings to one’s experience level.

There is one item I’ve not seen covered in Court commentary that’s worth letting you in on: the relationship between the case conference and the oral arguments.

It struck me as “so obvious!” while I was sitting at the Supreme Court, in person, watching the oral arguments in Fischer v. U.S.  I have in an amicus brief on behalf of a concerned group of citizens. I have great insight into the particulars of the case on paper.  But as I sat there, I realized that “oral arguments” at SCOTUS are unlike any other. 

When an attorney steps up to the podium, the attorneys is walking into a conversation already in progress amongst the Justices.  They’ve been behind closed doors in the case conference and have already taken at least one vote – to which you are not privy – and they have, essentially, walked out of that private conference room, into the public courtroom, conversation in progress, as a means and in a manner of pulling you into the scrum.  (Terrible word choice, I know.  It’s my British half, turning it all into rugby.)

And from that open courtroom, those nine Justices will return to the privacy of the ivory tower until the written decision is released.

As we waited for our case conference day since filing the Reply, in companion to our Petition for Writ of Certiorari, and as we now await results of the case conference, my internal conversation has thus been simple.  You want us to be part of your conversation.  We are right time, right place, right people.  Through federally-licensed dealer petitioners, you can pick-up the 1968 Gun Control Act date to put on the timeline from 1791 to 1865 to modern firearms compliance law.  You need us.  We need you.  Win-Win.

“Steady on” is all I can say to myself, for now, and share that private conversation with you.  “Steady on.”  “Soldier on.”  “Keep your hand light on the tiller.” 

And, use your time as wisely as if this Petition will be granted, because if that is the vote there will be a lot to do.