Michigan Judge Blocks New Ban On Open Carry At Polling Places | Talking Points Memo

A state judge on Tuesday blocked an effort from Michigan’s secretary of state to ban openly carried firearms at polling places.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1340972
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I think that I would just announce that openly carrying firearms with 100 feet of a polling place will be considered voter intimidation. Persons doing so will be arrested under the law forbidding voter intimidation.

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That would seem not to comply with the rule-making procedures invoked by this judge.

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I’m tired of having to look this shit up on my own. How about TPM tells us the name of the judge, and how that judge came to be there (appointed by whom, or when they were elected)?

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I came to say exactly the same thing. The MI AG should immediately announce that anyone carrying a firearm at a polling place would be arrested on suspicion of voter intimidation.

He noted that state law already prohibits openly carrying firearms in some locations used as polling places, such as churches, and added in italics: “Just as importantly, voter intimidation is already a crime .”

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I am so sick of this country’s gun fetish. Guns are more important than voting safely. Guns are more important than democracy. Guns are more important than lives.

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Besides, I’m pretty sure bullets can travel over 100 feet and the person doesn’t have to be standing within the banned area with their gun to be a form of intimidation.

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Clever – but also might not pass muster (so to speak).

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Christoper Murray is named at the top of the article.

He’s a John Engler Republican and is running for re-election next week – hence the need to intimidate voters at polling places.

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Probably not, but someone has to define what voter intimidation is and how it interacts with the second amendment. Speaking solely for myself, a private citizen walking around outside a polling place armed with a gun is intimidation.

@srfromgr I picked 100 feet because that’s the distance at which Michigan election law bans campaigning and related activities.

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OT – Anyone watching the stock market dive? I think this is the second day in a row being blamed on the spread of Covid. Its like Wall Street just woke up to fucking reality and realized that no stimulus by way of an actual bill by tRump and McTurtle is dooming the markets as the workforce is forced to die unnecessarily. I guess all that mechanization and lousy trade policies aren’t gonna fix stupid.

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We could solve this quickly enough by reviving the Black Panthers and having them exercise ttheir rights at, or near, polling places.

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So when and if someone does get shot and/or killed at a Michigan polling place, this judge can be held legally accountable, right?

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There was no judge named when I read it. TPM’s unmarked slipstreaming edits strike again. Maybe I should block quote the article in its current state when I comment on it?

Thank you.

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It’s a shame Murray didn’t learn the lesson from WI SC judge who was among the deciders for the April primary.

They found for this decision based on Kelly’s seat being up for re-election. How’s that working for him?

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I think this is being driven by McConnell’s lack of leadership on COVID stimulus, which means there’s less money now for a significant number of people to buy Wall Street’s products and services. Wall Street has always been aware of COVID, being located in the initial ground zero of the pandemic, but they were hoping for some financial support that the GOP just negated.

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That would be the Michigan legislature.

That would be Justice Handmaid’s Tale.

And that would be a jury of the defendant’s peers, who will inevitably be instructed that open carry is perfectly legal in Michigan, because such is the state of Michigan’s laws.

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Start encouraging Blacks to open carry to the polls. The sheriffs’ and judges’ interpretation of the laws will change pretty quickly.

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Or I could have inserted a parenthetical “(now)” when I responded.

If I’d had my wits about me.

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I’m not going to like that, because I can’t like it.

There is an assload of shit that we need to fix in this country. We may as well start with the Second Amendment, and make judges understand that textualism mean use the whole text, not the part you happen like.

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