On July 11th, 2022, I sued Gov. Kathy Hochul over her new law designed to disenfranchise New Yorkers of their right to bear arms in the face of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that they may not deny that right to the ordinary citizen. This law, S51001, requires gun license applicants to disclose all of their social media accounts, to gather four references, and to complete 18 hours of training. By my estimates, this raises the cost of obtaining a license to over $1,100 and about 35 hours of one’s time, not to mention the cost of missing work to make that happened. The intent is obvious: make it so difficult to get a license that the ordinary citizen, once again, is unable exercise their rights.

My case was assigned U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield and not much has happened, other than the government asking for a lengthy extension of the time they have to respond, but today I got the ball moving by asking Judge Schofield to issue a preliminary injunction against these requirements:

Law-abiding citizens will be forced to relinquish their right to anonymous speech and Internet privacy, while the next mass shooter simply lies on the application and omits any incriminating social media accounts. Diligent investigators, of course, may find incriminating social media anyway, but they could do the same just as well without this law. In other words, the law only serves to punish law-abiding citizens who will be honest on their applications, with no benefit to public safety.

The government’s response will be due in 2 weeks, and the answer to their complaint (with extension) in 3 weeks. I have only some faith that the motion will be granted, but the nice thing about preliminary injunctions is they are immediately appealable. I would imagine the government would appeal if they win, so either way we’ll be in the U.S. Court of Appeals before end of year.