By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
A U.S. District Court judge in Louisiana has vacated his own order, issued earlier this month, which required gun rights groups involved in a lawsuit to provide lists of their members as they existed in November 2020, in a case known as Reese v. ATF.
As reported earlier by TGM, Judge Robert Summerhays, a Donald Trump appointee, issued a ruling granting declaratory and injunctive relief only to the plaintiffs including three membership organizations, but limits the order to Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. The case seeks to expand the Second Amendment rights of young adults in the 18-20-year age group, allowing them to purchase handguns. The lawsuit was filed by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), Louisiana Shooting Association (LAS) and three private citizens, Joseph Granich, Emily Naquin and Caleb Reese, for whom the case is named.
But when the order came down on Oct. 7, it caused an uproar. Officials with SAF and FPC immediately declared they would not provide their membership lists, and instead would take action against the demand.
Summerhays’ order stated, “Within twenty-one (21) days of issuance of this Judgment, those Plaintiffs identified at paragraph 2(b) shall provide to Defendants a verified list of their members as of November 6, 2020.”
However, according to a SAF email blast, the order was vacated Oct. 10 and Judge Summerhays instead will schedule a telephone conference “at its earliest opportunity” to set a hearing on the motion to alter or amend the original judgment and, if necessary, set a briefing schedule.
In a released SAF statement, Bill Sack, director of Legal Operations, commented, “We had no intention of releasing any private membership data and were prepared to take all necessary steps to ensure our member list was not disclosed to the government. Luckily, the court responded to our joint motion promptly and vacated its original order. With that order vacated and a phone conference forthcoming as to the proper scope of relief, it appears we will have more updates on the Reese order in the near future.”
SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb was pleased with the judge’s decision, but he had this observation: “It’s preposterous to think we would release any type of member data to anyone.”
“We’re thankful the court saw its error in the judgment and vacated the original order,” Gottlieb noted. “However, we want to make it extremely clear – we will never release the private data of SAF supporters to the government, full stop. That’s akin to letting the proverbial fox in the henhouse and will never happen. Of that you can be assured.”
