District Courts

[John Kloehr]

Not sure if I will maintain this thread. There is just to much for me to hold an ongoing big picture of them. I am starting to track some cases which might reach the Supreme Court or resolve from opinions in the next year (or two). I'll start with a map of the districts so all can figure out where you are:

 

 

There are 13 circuits, 1-11 plus a DC (only) and Fed district (certain areas of law such as patents)

.

[John Kloehr]

It takes at least two years to go through the district court system to get to the Supreme Court. It can easily take four or more years to do so.

 

First a suit is filed and is assigned to some specific district court. The state responds. There may (and usually are) replies to these filings.

A request for a preliminary injunction is a common early event.

At  some point, there are often competing motions for summary judgement. These often lead to oral arguments.

Then some time later, the judge issues a decision. This decision is not binding on any other court, inside or outside the district.

The next step is a court of appeals. Note an appeal may happen at any step of the process (I left several out), and bounce up or down based on an outcome.

An appeals court ruling is binding on the circuit, but not on other circuits.

Within a district, if still no joy by either party, then the next appeal is to an en banc panel (all judges) which may kick it back down to a lower court or end an action in favor of one party, in whole or in part.

And finally, the last stop is the Supreme Court which I do track in another thread.

 

This information might help a reader judge where to place an update in the overall process.

 

Edited September 15 by John Kloehr

[John Kloehr]

A few cases I am monitoring:

 

NFA/1BBB/registration

 

In followup to the 5th Circuit ruling in Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF, there are two similar cases:

 

District Court, E. D. Missouri  (8th)           Brown v ATF

The NRA (all members) are a named plaintiff (for those wondering where the NRA was in Silencer Shop, an organization can not bring the same suit in multiple jurisdictions). Hearing on motions was 8/10, Cross motions for summary judgement taken under submission.

Waiting on decision.

 

District Court, E. D. Kentucky (6th)          Roberts v ATF

Cross motions for summary judgement filed.

8/18: Supplemental authority filed (SilencerCo)

8/31; Oral arguments set for 10/20.

Then add maybe 6 months for a decision.

 

The government does still have until October 5th to file an appeal in SilencerCo.

 

AWB/LCM Bans

 

3rd                                                                     ANJRPC v New Jersey

9/3: Order stayed pending appeal to the Supreme Court by 10/15. After scheduling, expect the petition to be held pending Viramontes. This will be tracked in the SCOTUS thread once it is filed.

 

Glock Ban

 

District Court, W.D. New York                   The Firing Pin, LLC v. James (1:26-cv-01718)

 

Filed 8/13/2026

Answered 9/11

This one is going to be around for a while...

 

People Bans

 

5th, 24-50564           United States v. Cordova         Felon ban with no prison time   

9/14: Will be heard en banc

Briefs due 10/14 and 11/13, arguments tbd

The judges who ruled against Cordova (3-judge panel)  wrote scathing critiques of the precedent they are required to follow, suggesting they would have ruled in favor of Cordova if they had a choice.

 

Know of an interesting case in the lower courts? Fill me in and I will try to follow it every now and then. Maybe monthly checks for progress...

Edited September 14 by John Kloehr
Otto bit me

[Lawdog]

And this folks, is why pro-gun groups need donations.

 

Not slamming lawyers, judges, court reporters, etc.

 

It's an expensive process.

 

 

[Blackwater 53393]

A lot to try to follow here!!  Thanks for giving it the effort!!

 

Voting is the first step in fixing things!! Above all else, DO THIS!!

 

Donate what you can if you believe in the cause!! If not money, (this is beyond membership dues and such) donate time!!

 

Contact legislators that represent you and administrators who have the reins!!  Let them know that if they don’t protect your interests, you’ll take your vote and your support to someone else!  

If you’re not satisfied with their response or their performance, do what you said you’d do!!

 

The least expensive thing you can do is often the most effective!! TALK TO PEOPLE!!!  What you say and who you say it to can make a difference! A BIG DIFFERENCE!!

 

If you have money to donate, by all means, help those who are doing the hard work of protecting and restoring our naturally endowed rights!!

[John Kloehr]

4 hours ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

... restoring our naturally endowed rights!!

 

Those are the core words right there!

[John Kloehr]

A side story, showing how a suit gets started, and sometimes maybe does not turn into a suit (so nothing to follow yet). The demand letter:

 

 

[Vail Vigilante]

WA, OR, CA should have their own zone.

[Blackwater 53393]

4 hours ago, Vail Vigilante said:

WA, OR, CA should have their own zone.

Could not agree more!!  

[John Kloehr]

I did a half pass at figuring out what all the DOJ cases are, then got started on what may the largest list of active cases. And came across this to show a rough count of figuring out all the various cases, issues, and courts:

 

 

I'm through maybe half of them. Also need to parse GOA, SAF, NRA, and NAGR. I'm sure there are others in addition to the suits brought by state members of these various organizations.

 

I will likely not find all of them before I start posting some info about the various efforts and the stage they are at. Still have about 3 dozen suits to sort out for just FPC. Some of them are also joined by other organizations, I am trying to get some understanding of this too.

 

One layer I will not go into at this stage is to look at the actual law firms working them. There are certain names which come up often.

[Shepherd Book]

John, thank you for all you do to help keep us informed!  Appreciate it, Pard!   SB

[John Kloehr]

On 9/19/2026 at 12:52 PM, John Kloehr said:

One layer I will not go into at this stage is to look at the actual law firms working them. There are certain names which come up often.

I'm drawing another line for what I will not track or follow. Barring exceptional circumstances, I will not track or follow cases proceeding in lower criminal courts. I might follow them at the appeals level. I will follow them at the Supreme Court.

 

These generally deal with rights restoration, occasionally with sentencing guidelines, and a slowly rising number challenging possession bans under the  commerce clause.

 

While all are interesting and worthy issues, the vast majority of these challenges will fail, particularly in the lower courts. Until a suit gets out of criminal court and into civil court, it will not be in any of my updates in this thread.

 

Not sure yet when I will make a "substantive" post here. I have now captured all of the FPC cases and working on capturing SAF cases. Then NAGR and the NRA. And finally circle back to what the DOJ is doing to complete that case list. And who am I missing in those 2A advocates?

 

Call that last a request for guidance. Two more requests for followers of this thread:

 

If you hear of a NEW case championed by FPC, please feel free to provide any  link or pointer so I can track it. Assume I know about anything up until today. Still would rather say "got it" several times rather than miss something in the pipeline.

 

When I start providing summaries, is there more interest in which circuit it is in (1st, 5th, 9th, ...), or the challenged laws (NFA, places, things, process, ...)? And in any case, is there a circuit or a category you are most interested in? Getting a grip on all of this is going to be a multi-month project, time permitting after tracking SCOTUS.

 

I'll hold my thoughts so you can speak to your interests. I'll also be back in the  SCOTUS thread later this week, the new term is about to kick off. At least 3 of my  "work sessions" in the next week will be over there.

 

Edited September 22 by John Kloehr
Slop Otto is blind to

[John Kloehr]

Ah! GOA! Adding to the todo list.

[Shepherd Book]

2nd Circuit affects me the most, living behind enemy lines...   SB

[John Kloehr]

22 minutes ago, Shepherd Book said:

2nd Circuit affects me the most, living behind enemy lines...   SB

Well, New York has been the most wonderful source of cases to help restore 2A rights nationwide... 

 

Though seriously, I'm not sure which circuit is really the "worst." The 2nd, 7th, and 9th are all contenders.

[John Kloehr]

Sorting these cases is painfully slow, I also know I am not finding all of them. Mainly posting just to keep this thread from getting archived. And to complain LOL.

 

In more detail as to challenge of doing this sort, there is duplication to resolve as several organizations contribute to the same challenge. As these cases take so long, they often change names either through substitution of plaintiffs or substitution of defendants. There is also case consolidation where multiple related challenges are merged together, which may also change the plaintiff or defendant list (or at least who the lead is for each). Plus some other quirks to sort out.

 

There are also more categories of challenges at the district level than at the Supreme Court, so I will need to refactor how I divide them up. Also complicated by some or the challenges fitting in more than one category.

 

I'm seeing after the 10/9 Supreme Court conference as to the minimum likely time to write any sort of summary or introduction to District Court actions. Maybe not until the end of October.

 

On edit: Also the "chain" of stays where a case is waiting on another case, which might be waiting on yet another case... The stayed cases are some of the hardest to find as they no longer make any news.

Edited September 26 by John Kloehr

[John Kloehr]

On 9/23/2026 at 11:39 AM, Shepherd Book said:

2nd Circuit affects me the most, living behind enemy lines...   SB

 

I am taking this interest into account for all districts.

 

When I do cite cases, I will include either "(Xth)" in parenthesis to indicate the district it is in or ""Xth"  without parenthesis if any part of a case has gone to the Appeals Court level. I leave it to every reader to figure out their state and district from my earlier post.

 

One thing I am dropping at this time is any losses at lower courts which did not proceed to (or failed at ) higher courts including the Supreme Court. This means I will not, at least at first, have good insight into circuit splits. Still, those splits will come out at the SCOTUS level at some point.

 

When it comes to hardware bans and a few other issues, I will break out the challenges by district if not by which state in that district.

 

Final gripe: It does not help me figure out cases when a major gun site has an error on their page, mix up two cases, and costs me a 1/2 hour figuring out there was nothing there. Two non-existent cases and one I already knew about.

 

 

[John Kloehr]

Separate form the map above, this is my guide for circuits:

 

First Circuit

Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Puerto Rico and Rhode Island

Second Circuit

Connecticut, New York, Vermont

 

Third Circuit

Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the Virgin Islands

Fourth Circuit

Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina

Fifth Circuit

Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas

Sixth Circuit

Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee

Seventh Circuit

Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, and from federal administrative agencies

Eighth Circuit

Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota

Ninth Circuit

 

Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington - along with the territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands

Tenth Circuit

Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah, plus those portions of the Yellowstone National Park extending into Montana and Idaho*

Eleventh Circuit

Alabama, Florida and Georgia

District of Columbia Circuit

DC

Federal Circuit

Patents, International trade, Government claims, Veterans benefits, Public safety and personnel, and Trademarks

 

On edit: Yellowstone boundaries and assignment is a quirk of history. The "Federal" circuit is a merger of earlier courts focused on these things which did not fit anywhere else.

Edited September 29 by John Kloehr

[John Kloehr]

Not an analysis, a note on Ortega v Grishom. This is a challenge to the New Mexico 7-day waiting period. At this time, the law is unconstitutional and the state still plans to appeal. As part of the (interim) win, the plaintiffs now submit the bill:

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nmd.501908/gov.uscourts.nmd.501908.129.0.pdf

 

 

 

It does take a lot of money to go through the court processes. Multiply this by however many cases there are, and if they are ultimately successful.

[Blackwater 53393]

3 hours ago, John Kloehr said:

Not an analysis, a note on Ortega v Grishom. This is a challenge to the New Mexico 7-day waiting period. At this time, the law is unconstitutional and the state still plans to appeal. As part of the (interim) win, the plaintiffs now submit the bill:

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nmd.501908/gov.uscourts.nmd.501908.129.0.pdf

 

 

 

It does take a lot of money to go through the court processes. Multiply this by however many cases there are, and if they are ultimately successful.

All such fees should be collected directly from the legislators and bureaucrats who promoted, passed, signed, and tried to enforce this bogus legislation!!  
 

NO taxpayer money should be spent to pay this debt!!!😡

[John Kloehr]

Grinding at a document..  My Scotus notes run close to 30 pages and I have found most cases.

 

I know I have not found all lower court cases and I already have 60 pages of notes so far. I have sort of gone through 1/2 of them.

 

I have tried to think of the issues as places, persons, or things.  Looking at the lower courts, I am now looking at the sort 9subject to change) as:

 

People

Felon In Possession

Protective Order Ban

Under Indictment fits in here too...

Legal Visa Holder

Drugs Users

Young Adults

 

Process

NFA

Licensing/Training

Waiting Periods

Reciprocity

Sensitive Places

Due Process

Taxes

 

Industry

PLCAA

AWBs, LCMs, Glock

Rosters

Stun Gun Ban

Machine Gun Ban

Other Bans (Stun guns, body armor, ...)

Self Manufacturing

 

People, Process, and Industry. Open to other thoughts for how to split up or categorize all the challenges. Any thoughts of a different slice and dice? I put hardware bans under "Industry" rather than having  a "things" category. Even though "industry" should not include making your own gun at home.

 

Open to other thoughts of clarity.

 

Edited Friday at 12:27 AM by John Kloehr