Month: August 2018

Stopped & Searched for No Reason by Bureau of Indian Affairs on Way to Burning Man? Here’s a Template to Sue Them!

BIA Lawsuit Template

Festival attendees, festival organizers, and the media are reporting that the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, a part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, are indiscriminately stopping and, often, searching, vehicles as they pass through an Indian reservation en route to the event.  Numerous people have written about being told that they had “touched the center line,” were missing a front license plate (even when their vehicle was registered in a state that doesn’t require the same), or had been a few miles an hour over the speed limit, and then held up for a couple of hours while dogs were brought and then vehicles were searched.

If this happened to you, you should hire a lawyer.  But many simply can’t afford a lawyer or find a competent lawyer, so I’ve created a handy lawsuit template for you to sue the BIA officers who violated your rights, pro se, in federal court!

Here’s how it works:

  1. Download the template (below) and open in a recent version of Microsoft Word.  (OpenOffice or other freeware that supports .docx format are also fine.)
  2. Make sure “Show Comments” is on, because I’ve created little notes at each place you need to edit.  (How do I do that?)
  3. Fill out the form according to the little notes.
  4. Visit the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada’s forms page and also fill out the following two short forms: Civil Cover Sheet (one for the whole case), Summons in a Civil Action (one for each officer you’re suing).
  5. The filing fee is $400.  If you legitimately do not have $400 to spare, you can file for free with this form (but the court will inquire as to your finances, so only do this if you legitimately cannot afford $400).
  6. Print 3 copies of everything and take them to the clerk’s office of the local federal court (address info here).
  7. After filing, you’ll need to serve the summons and complaint on the government.  The clerk’s office can provide you instructions, or you can just hire a process server.
  8. Also after filing, fill out and mail into the BIA a Form 95 (Federal Tort Claims Act claim form).  This isn’t required for the suit you just filed, but allows you a different kind of lawsuit if BIA doesn’t pay you within 6 months, and you can amend your complaint then to cover that new kind of suit too.

Bureau of Indian Affairs Lawsuit Template (.docx)

Remember, this template was designed only for BIA!  If other federal police stopped you, you can probably modify it on your own to state a claim.  But if local police stopped you, it requires modifications beyond just searching & replacing the name.  Also, if your incident resulted in the police finding drugs or otherwise arresting/citing you for a crime, please stop and seek a lawyer right away.

The publication of forms, guides, etc., does not constitute legal advice — see Dacey v. New York County Lawyers’ Association, 423 F.2d 188 (2nd Cir. 1970) — only a consult with an attorney can provide you legal advice because an attorney needs to hear your specific facts to provide advice specifically applicable to you.  As discussed, if you can afford to consult with an attorney before filing, that’s best.  If not, I’d rather see people make an attempt at seeking justice, even if imperfect, than allow their rights to be trampled.

Enjoy!

10

Is It *Really* Impossible To Get A Gun License in NYC? (Part X — Federal Lawsuit Filed)

This is the tenth installment of a series documenting an ordinary New Yorker attempting to exercise his Second Amendment rights: Part I (license application), Part II (application rejected), Part III (the lawsuit), Part IV (appeal filed), Part V (appellate briefing complete), Part VI (N.Y. Appeals Court Not Interested in Ending NYPD Corruption), Part VII (Corruption? You Can’t Prove It!), Part VIII (appeal to N.Y. high court), Part IX (N.Y. Court of Appeals won’t hear). 

Federal Gun License ComplaintIn June, New York’s highest court refused to hear my challenge to New York City’s practice of giving gun licenses only to those with the right “connections” to the government — connections being bribe money, literally being a rock star, or just having friends in the right places.  Since the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed that Second Amendment rights are applicable to individuals without regards to “militia membership” in 2008, the New York Court of Appeals has plugged its ears to literally every case to come before it that asked the court to conform New York law to the Supreme Court’s mandate (as they must).

My state remedies now exhausted, I turn to the federal courts for help.  This morning, I filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against the City for its refusal to allow the ordinary, law-abiding citizen to arm themselves.

Full Complaint: Corbett v. City of New York – Complaint with Exhibits (.pdf)

If you’ve been following along, many of the arguments match up with those in the New York courts.  But, there’s a couple new things.

First, there have been some good decisions in other federal courts as of recent.  On the west coast, the 9th Circuit last month struck down Hawaii’s ban on citizen gun licenses in Young v. Hawaii (.pdf).  On the east coast, the D.C. Circuit struck down the same last year in Washington D.C. in Wrenn v. D.C.  These updates may or may not persuade the 2nd Circuit that covers New York, but they definitely make it more likely that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case.

Second, I’m adding a new equal protection claim that I don’t think has ever been brought here.  “Equal protection” is a part of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that requires the government to treat everybody similarly unless there are really good reasons not to.  In this case, the main problem is New York’s “proper cause” requirement, which (in New York City and a handful of other counties in the state) demands that citizens show a reason greater than that of an ordinary citizen to get a license.  However, New York City exempts retired police officers from this proper cause requirement, even though there’s really no logical relationship between being a retired cop and “needing” a gun.  This brings up a classic equal protection scenario: if the NYPD wants to let its retired cops carry, it has to let me carry too.  If the court agrees, the City may have a choice between taking away guns from retirees or giving us plebs our constitutional rights — a political quagmire indeed.

The case is no. 18-CV-7022 and was assigned to U. S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla, an Obama appointee.  The City will be served today and will have 3 weeks to craft a reply.  More updates then.

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