Knife Rights Moves to Amend Complaint After Outrageous NYC Ruling

Critter

Critter

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Knife Rights has asked the Court for permission to amend its complaint to add details the Court said should have been included when it dismissed Knife Rights' Federal civil rights lawsuit against New York City and District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. last week. The outrageous decision by U.S. District Court Judge Katherine B. Forrest found that persons arrested or threatened with arrest in NYC do not have standing to sue, in part because details about certain knives were not included in the complaint. Yet the Court failed to allow Knife Rights to add those details - a standard practice in litigation. Knife Rights has now formally moved for reconsideration of the decision, and for leave to amend the complaint.

Leave to amend is supposed to be freely granted according to well-established legal principles. While we do not believe that the original complaint was defective in any way, we believe it was erroneous for the Court not to allow us an opportunity to amend the complaint to address the Court's findings. If the motion for reconsideration is granted, the lawsuit would be able to continue forward without having to appeal to a higher court.

To read our Motion for Reconsideration and Memorandum of Law in Support of Plaintiffs' Motion for Reconsideration: http://www.KnifeRights.org/Motion_for_Reconsideration.pdf

In her original ruling this recently appointed judge said that the plaintiffs in our case do not have standing to sue, in part because the case documents don't identify specific knives that would be illegal under New York City's interpretation of state law. The trouble is, it's nearly impossible to identify them under New York City's haphazard and inconsistent approach - which is the whole point of the case in the first place! Even the DA has admitted that different specimens of the exact same make and model knife could be simultaneously found to be both legal and illegal! Click to read the judge's ruling.

While certainly a setback, standing issues are a typical obstacle in federal civil rights cases against governments. It will not deter us from continuing the lawsuit.

Knife Rights will never stop fighting for your rights, and neither should you. Please help us win this critical battle by contributing to Knife Rights Foundation's Legal Fund today as generously as you can. We've led the fight to defend knife rights in the legislative arena and we are pioneering it in the courts. Please help us defend freedom!

Make a tax-deductible donation to the Knife Rights Foundation Legal Fund TODAY!
 
Knife Rights is asking the court to reconsider its dismissal of a case that will challenge New York City's knife law. Specifically, it's requesting that the court allow it to revise its complaint to add allegations that allow knife rights and the other plaintiffs to sue the government [an entity must have "standing" to sue; this means that it must have a sufficient interest in the litigation; this is a somewhat technical test, but can remedied in this case by allowing Knife Rights to add a few facts to its complaint].

If the court allows Knife Rights to revise its complaint, knife rights can proceed with the case and argue that New York's knife law is so vague that it cannot be lawfully applied because it infringes on various constitutional rights, such as due process of law.
 
Thank you for the information and update on the situation.
 
Which begs me to ask: What exactly is a knife? In every country in the world there are frivolous public servants that make a career (and promotion and pension and sick leave and language training, holidays etc) out of making mountains out of mole hills. The wealthier the Country, and the more socialist the leaning, the more civil service 'pretend-jobs' there are. Knife law? I'm guessing the plaintiff didn't manage to pull out a handgun. Knives aren't quite so final or quite so sudden as having a 45 stuck in your ear.
 
Thanks for the update and I'm fully in support of this lawsuit. I lived in NYC for about 8 years and all I was able to carry was a swiss army knife and a sodbuster jr.
 
If the motion is denied, would it still be possible to bring a new suit with the amendments already integrated? Or was the dismissal for lack of standing based on other things as well (guessing so, since you used the term "in part")?

Thank you for keeping us all up to date.
 
MplsAtty said:
If the motion is denied, would it still be possible to bring a new suit with the amendments already integrated? Or was the dismissal for lack of standing based on other things as well (guessing so, since you used the term "in part")?

Thank you for keeping us all up to date.
Click to expand...

Certainly a possibility, but appeals are the first step before any new lawsuit is instigated.
 
As a born, raised, and schooled in New York former New Yorker, not a month has gone by over the last 20 years or so where I wonder what in the hell happened to my beloved New York. While I visit remaining family members in NYC 2 to 3 times a year, while getting my real pizza fix, dirty Sabrett hot dog fix, my Mount Fuji sized hot pastrami on rye sandwiches, real Chinese food from a below street level sketchy looking restaurant where no one speaks English, nor is the menu in English, while I get my real fresh bagels on Sunday morning from a Jerome Avenue baker, and then off for a few pounds of real Nova Scotia Lox, all while I'm Illegally carrying my pocket folder and my S&W 638 wondering if this time will be the last time I see my Virginia plantation for at least a year because the city has passed so many laws since I left NYC, that just my mere presence is an illegal act, I have to ask, whiskey tango foxtrot, over?:(
 
Alnamvet68 said:
As a born, raised, and schooled in New York former New Yorker, not a month has gone by over the last 20 years or so where I wonder what in the hell happened to my beloved New York. While I visit remaining family members in NYC 2 to 3 times a year, while getting my real pizza fix, dirty Sabrett hot dog fix, my Mount Fuji sized hot pastrami on rye sandwiches, real Chinese food from a below street level sketchy looking restaurant where no one speaks English, nor is the menu in English, while I get my real fresh bagels on Sunday morning from a Jerome Avenue baker, and then off for a few pounds of real Nova Scotia Lox, all while I'm Illegally carrying my pocket folder and my S&W 638 wondering if this time will be the last time I see my Virginia plantation for at least a year because the city has passed so many laws since I left NYC, that just my mere presence is an illegal act, I have to ask, whiskey tango foxtrot, over?:(
Click to expand...

Gray's Papaya......and I miss H&H that was near Zabars.

Anyhow, I go to NY at least once a year and never carry a weapon of any kind......just not worth the hassle.
 
New York's knife and gun laws are ridiculous, just like California's.

(( lets not inject partisan politics here ))
 
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