Including ...Perspectives on Supreme Court Cases • President’s Message • Attorney Question • Book Review • Editor's Notebook • About this Journal
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The Evolving Law
Perspectives on Supreme Court Cases with Attorney Menashe Sasson
Interview by Gila Hayes
The Network is blessed to be associated with attorneys who genuinely care about liberty and that passion is reflected in our most popular monthly column, the Attorney Question of the Month. Since affiliating with us in 2013, once or twice a year, Dallas, TX attorney Menashe Sasson contributes to the column, and when that happens, anyone who loves to learn, puts on their reading glasses, grabs a pen and note pad and settles in to study, because his contributions are supported with detailed citations and explanations of the law or laws bearing on the topic under discussion. His commentaries expose us as laypersons to the language of the law and what it means. Maybe that’s not too surprising because Mr. Sasson was a police officer and major crimes detective for 12 years before attending law school. Before that, he served in the U.S. military, and he is an NRA-certified pistol, concealed carry, and rifle instructor and range safety officer.
A lot of Mr. Sasson’s cases concern folks who have background issues that prevent them from passing a 4473 gun purchase background check. That’s pertinent because it is not unusual for callers to the Network to say they’d like to become armed citizens, but they’re prohibited from possessing firearms. While our work on behalf of members is 100% focused on the legal defense of use of force in self defense and doesn’t entail restoration of rights or getting permits to carry, the questions arise so that it is well worthwhile to ask him how Supreme Court decisions build on previous cases, and how some create openings for additional litigation. Let’s switch now to our Q & A format and learn from Attorney Menashe Sasson in his own words. For members preferring video, we’ve posted a longer, informal discussion at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68SDp6d3CzA .
eJournal: Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us today. What should we know about you besides the fact that reading this doesn’t create an attorney-client relationship?
Sasson: I want to emphasize this is for educational purposes. I can’t give legal advice to anybody because this is just really not an appropriate forum for that, but we do encourage learning.
Today, I want to start out talking about several different cases and how they fit together and show the progression of the law.
A lot of non-lawyers, laypeople if you will, hear that the Supreme Court decided X or that the Supreme Court decided Y, and for them that’s the end of it. In reality, the law is not just one discrete case; it’s reading cases together, seeing the development, seeing how they work together, and sometimes how they do not work together. That is where I’d like to start today.
Court Decisions
Supreme Court Decisions
To facilitate your understanding of the issues presented in our interview with Menashe Sasson, we have provided direct access the various court decisions mentioned.
2008 Heller Decision
President’s Message
by Marty Hayes, J.D.
Kayla Giles, the Louisiana mom who shot and killed her estranged husband, was subsequently convicted of second-degree murder and obstructing justice and is currently serving a life sentence plus 30 years for the two crimes, was back in the news the other day, when she appealed her conviction to the Louisiana Supreme Court. If you remember, she was the individual USCCA dropped because their insurance underwriter believed she committed murder, as opposed to a legitimate act of self defense. Over the past year, her case has become “YouTube famous” in part from the Attorneys on Retainer’s owner Marc Victor promoting his company by exposing the USCCA’s involvement in the case.
I will let you learn all about the case on your own if you wish by searching YouTube for her name, which will lead you to numerous videos on the subject. It is a topic of debate by “GunTubers” (YouTube celebrities who take money from the different companies in the industry to promote their sponsor over the others).
Attorney Question of the Month
Our Florida Affiliated Attorney Steven M. Harris suggested that our online journal’s Attorney Question of the Month should explore various states’ statutes, caselaw and jury instructions about duty to retreat, noting that he was appalled by MN Supreme Court’s decision in State v. Blevins, No. A22-0432 (Sup. Ct. Minnesota, July 31, 2024) which, in part held, “In Minnesota, a person does not have an inherent right to stand their ground, and the public policy interests underlying the judicially created duty to retreat when reasonably possible include avoiding potentially deadly confrontations.”) See https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/mn-supreme-court/116439787.html .
Harris asked:
Does a statute or caselaw in your state impose some generalized duty to avoid a dangerous person, place, or situation (as part of a duty to retreat or otherwise) before non-deadly or deadly force may be justifiable? How is that requirement worded?
What jury instructions are usually given in your state to address whether there is or is not a duty to retreat?
We’ll start this column with Attorney Harris’ input and follow up with comments from our other Affiliated Attorneys.
Book Review
Battlefield America: A Citizen’s Guide to Surviving the New World
By Brian Maloy
Bean & Binder Publishing (Dec. 2024)
ISBN-13: 979-8991922302
237 pages, softbound, $19.99; eBook $4.99
Last month, I was given a book written by a former Chicago police officer. Brian Maloy’s first book, Battlefield America is a personal and professional exploration into surviving the violence in American cities today. Not surprisingly, some of the pages reflect a decidedly urban-police-centric view. I wondered if we could find common ground.
Our concerns are very parallel, I think; sometimes the way we get there and the way we view the individual involvement is really different, including rights to possess and carry guns. So much of my thinking is influenced by lifelong instructors and their students, that I often struggle with others’ views about the level of preparation armed citizens bring to the problem. Moving beyond that disconnect, I appreciated Maloy’s exploration of the growing dangers in American society, which he identifies as --
• active killer attacks and the related mental health crisis,
• power players' efforts to uproot the foundations of society and create chaos for their own benefit,
• the need for warrior citizens to shoulder the “physical, emotional, and mental effects of lethal engagements,”
• going armed, and the skills and awareness needed for individuals and groups of people to survive targeted attacks.
Editor’s Notebook
Name and Date, Please
by Gila Hayes
Do you take responsibility for your statements? Armed citizens’ very legitimate pursuit of robust personal security – coupled with the anonymity available through online media – results, frustratingly, in a lot of “influencers” not taking responsibility for their statements, not separating opinion from fact, and playing free and easy with the truth.
I believe we are accountable for our statements, whether whispered, bellowed or spoken, or if it is written and made public through the many online outlets of blogging, video, newsletters or even in that old fashioned relic of the latter half of the 1900s – the good old Letter to the Editor in the local newspaper. Fastforward to the year 2025 when the local “paper” probably isn’t even ink on paper any longer, since most get their news online. Concurrent with this advance has come an unprecedented opportunity for anyone with an internet connection to toss out an innuendo or two, stir up suspicions and express opinions – sometimes declared to be facts, because, you know, if I “feel” it this strongly, how could it be incorrect? – for the “benefit” of anyone who cares to read or listen.
About this Journal
The eJournal of the Armed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network, Inc. is published monthly on the Network’s website at http://armedcitizensnetwork.org/our-journal. Content is copyrighted by the Armed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network, Inc.
Do not mistake information presented in this online publication for legal advice; it is not. The Network strives to assure that information published in this journal is both accurate and useful. Reader, it is your responsibility to consult your own attorney to receive professional assurance that this information and your interpretation or understanding of it is accurate, complete and appropriate with respect to your particular situation.