I have two significant cases pending at the moment:
- Corbett v. City of New York, 18-CV-7022 (S.D.N.Y.), challenging New York City’s requirement that one must give a “good reason” and answer invasive, irrelevant questions, when applying for a license to carry a handgun.
- Corbett v. Transportation Security Administration, 15-15717 (11th Cir.), challenging the TSA’s assertion that it may refuse to allow passengers to “opt out” of the nude body scanners as it sees fit.
My readers regularly ask me (in comments, on Twitter, by e-mail, etc.) for updates, and my answer is always the same: I’ll post them as soon as I have them. The gun rights case above has had the government’s motion to dismiss pending before the court, fully briefed (that is, all parties have been completely heard and we are just waiting on a ruling), for 5 months. Especially considering the government shutdown earlier this year, that’s not abnormal.
However, yesterday marked the 2 year anniversary of the TSA case being fully briefed before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, which has neglected the case for that amount of time. This is not the usual amount of time to wait on an appeal, so I sent that court an anniversary card this afternoon. I wouldn’t exactly say that courts “appreciate” reminders that they are taking too long, but at some point, the prejudice to my case and our rights outweighs the risk of offending a judge’s feelings.
There is no statutory limit to how long a court can take, although courts often rule within 6 months because they have to report to Congress when cases take longer. Be patient with me — and I promise I’ll post updates as they come.
