Constitutional Scholar Jonathan Turley Says Newsom’s Plan For Gun Laws Modeled on Texas Abortion Ban Won’t Work

 

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) is now pushing for gun laws modeled after Texas’ abortion ban.

The “heartbeat” law effectively outlaws abortions in the state after 6 weeks and also gives any citizen – including those outside Texas – the right to take legal action against anyone who ‘aids and abets’ the termination of a pregnancy after the cut off point.

“Newsom argued that the court has endorsed states’ ability to create similar legal mechanisms to safeguard laws from federal court review. In his statement Saturday, Newsom referred to a recent federal court decision that overturned the state’s ban on assault rifles in which the judge compared the weapons to a Swiss Army knife.” the Los Angeles Times reported.

“If states can now shield their laws from review by the federal courts that compare assault weapons to Swiss Army knives, then California will use that authority to protect people’s lives, where Texas used it to put women in harm’s way,” Newsom said.

Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley said Newsom’s plan won’t work.

“If the law is crafted as Newsom suggests, this won’t work legally. Nevertheless, there will be much cooing on cable programs at the cleverness of Newsom and the comeuppance for conservatives. Newsom will seize the moment in terms of popularity while leaving the costs to others to bear in the later failed litigation,” Turley wrote in a post on his blog Sunday.

On Friday the Supreme Court left Texas’ abortion law in effect.

Jonathan Turley said Newsom will score political points with Democrats but it will come with a cost.

“Gov. Newsom denounced the Supreme Court in Women’s Health v. Jackson for refusing to enjoin the Texas law that allows people to sue anyone who ‘aids or abets’ one performed after about six weeks. That led to widespread calls for the passage of legislation to ‘codify Roe,’ including from the White House,” Turley wrote. “Newsom, however, wants to replicate the law to limit Second Amendment rights the way that conservatives used it to limit reproductive rights.”

“The Texas law was so menacing because it exposed such a wide array of people to potential lawsuit. It would not be quite as popular to go after gun owners or gun rights groups. Yet, Newsom is targeting business which are going to be less intimidated by such litigation costs in a law that would be clearly unconstitutional,” Turley added.

“With his bravado, Newsom has guaranteed that courts will strike down his law as an open ‘mockery’ of gun rights precedent and he will actually box in liberal judges and jurists in voting against the California law on the same grounds,” Turley said.