Supreme Court declines to hear bump stock challenges
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear two cases on the federal regulatory ban of bump stocks, leaving in place the prohibition on the devices used in the Las Vegas Strip mass shooting.
The cases requesting Supreme Court review were brought by Gun Owners of America and a Utah gun enthusiast who bought a bump stock before the accessories were reclassified as machine guns by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive,a decision that made them illegal to own under the Gun Control Act.
The reclassification was the result of a review ordered by former President Donald Trump after the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting in Las Vegas in which a gunman used weapons equipped with bump stocks to kill 60 people and injure hundreds more in just 10 minutes.
Appellate courts in Denver and Cincinnati also upheld the bans in split decisions, prompting groups to seek a Supreme Court review that justices rejected Monday.
—Las Vegas Review-Journal
Trump asks to push 'special master' appeal hearing to January
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump wants to slow down the government’s appeal case over the appointment of a so-called special master to review thousands of documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Trump’s lawyers on Monday urged the federal appeals court in Atlanta to deny the Justice Department’s request to expedite the case, arguing Trump’s team is already crunched for time dealing with the special master review and district court action.That includes going over the 11,000 documents, totaling about 200,000 pages, to determine if they’re protected by attorney-client or executive privilege and litigating any fights over those claims, they said.
Oral arguments shouldn’t take place until January at the earliest, Trump attorney Christopher Kise said in the filing.
“No good cause has been shown as to why President Trump should have significantly less time than the government and less time than that provided under the rules to prepare and brief his arguments before this court in this unprecedented case,” they said.
The Justice Department proposed wrapping up briefing by Nov. 11 and asked the court to set a date for arguments shortly after that. It argued that continuing to block investigators from using the seized materials goes against the public interest by delaying a crucial criminal and national security probe into whether Trump mishandled classified documents.
The Justice Department declined to comment.
—Bloomberg News
Parkland gunman’s admissions to psychiatrist reveal longtime intent to be mass shooter, testimony shows
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — He chose Valentine’s Day because he had no one to love and no one loved him.
He considered sparing two victims but decided against it because they gave him a “nasty look.”
He laid down his weapon after murdering his last victim because he couldn’t find anyone else to kill.
Confessed gunman Nikolas Cruz, whose trial resumed in a Fort Lauderdale courtroom Monday, made a series of admissions to a prosecution psychiatrist in interviews earlier this year — interviews that were recorded on video and played for the jury.
In the final phase of trial testimony, prosecutors are seeking to undermine the defendant’s plea for mercy by showing that Cruz, 24, was never as mentally incapacitated as his defense lawyers would like the jury to believe. Defense witnesses testified that Cruz had a lifelong struggle with mental challenges caused in large part by his mother’s abuse of drugs and alcohol while she was pregnant with him.
Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder impaired his ability to control his impulses, defense experts testified, and inhibited his ability to make long-term plans.
But psychiatrist Charles Scott said Cruz, in murdering 17 people and wounding 17 more at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018, demonstrated the kind of behavior, planning and quick thinking that should have been impossible if defense experts were right.
Cruz, 24, has confessed to killing 17 people and wounding 17 others at the high school he once attended.
He faces the death penalty for each of the 17 murders he committed.
A jury’s unanimous vote is required to sentence Cruz to death; otherwise he will be sentenced to life in prison.
—South Florida Sun Sentinel
Japan sends rare warning to residents to shelter after North Korea launches missile
TOKYO — North Korea fired a missile over Japan for the first time since 2017, prompting a rare public warning and further ratcheting up tensions over Kim Jong Un’s nuclear program.
The missile launched Tuesday appears to have splashed down in waters to the east of Japan, government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno told a news briefing, adding there were no reports of damage. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida condemned the launch.
North Korea fired what appeared to be an intermediate-range ballistic missile at 7:23 a.m. local time from Jagang province that flew over Japan, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. It would be the longest-range missile North Korea has launched since May and it comes after Pyongyang in late September fired off one of its biggest barrages of missiles in a week under Kim.
There may be further provocations to come as the United States, Japan and South Korea have warned that Kim’s regime is preparing to test its first nuclear device since 2017.
The Japanese government had earlier broadcast a notice to the Japanese public that a North Korean missile was heading toward the northern part of the country.
“A missile has been launched, a missile has been launched,” were among some of the warnings read by broadcasters with television screens only showing a black screen with white text. It warned residents of less populated areas of some remote islands — part of Tokyo as well as Hokkaido and Aomori prefectures — to take shelter from a missile fired from North Korea.
—Bloomberg News
