Recent Stories with tag parks

Gun-free summer theatre at Volunteer Park.

U.S. District Court Judge Marsha J. Pechman ruled in favor of the City of Seattle against plaintiff Robert Warden, of Kent, and dismissed his case. Warden had brought suit against the city and Mayor Greg Nickels for banning guns in parks, arguing that the state constitution expressly prevented that limitation. The King Co. Superior Court agreed in February, calling the ban illegal.

But here's where it gets interesting: Warden's success in that case rendered his complaint moot in U.S. District Court. So he couldn't argue the more straightforward claim that the state constitution preempted local law. ("The court was presented only with the issue of state law preemption, and here Plaintiff expressly removed his preemption claim from his complaint," wrote Pecham in her decision. )

So Warden was left arguing Second and Fourteenth Amendment issues. Pechman countered that the Second Amendment does not (yet, there's a case coming before the Supreme Court) constrain the actions of municipalities like Seattle, only Congress. And she did not find Warden discriminated against. Warden was able to cite no inalienable right to carry a gun in a park.

Pechman moved on, though, to give her thoughts as to the legitimacy of the preemption argument anyway. In her view, there's precedent for a parks gun ban:...

(more)