We reported last July how a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld an earlier preliminary injunction against the section of the California Business & Professional Code that prohibits advertising of any “firearm-related product in a manner that is designed, intended, or reasonably appears to be attractive to minors.”
In Junior Sports Magazine v. Bonta, Junior Sports Magazine argued that the law infringed its First Amendment right to free speech and joined with the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) to challenge it.
Fast forward about eight months, and on March 17, the United States District Court for the Central District of California certified a settlement between the Attorney General of California and the plaintiffs. In the settlement, the state is required to pay the plaintiffs $1.38 million in fees.
“It is hereby declared that Section 22949.80, in its entirety, violates the First Amendment of the United States Constitution on its face and as applied to Plaintiffs. PERMANENT INJUNCTION IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Defendant shall be permanently enjoined from enforcing section 22949.80,” the ruling stated. “The Attorney General is further directed to issue an alert through an information bulletin or other ordinary communications notifying all District Attorneys, County Counsels, and City Attorneys in California that enforcement of Section 22949.80 has been permanently enjoined in its entirety.”
The ruling then addressed the settlement.
“IT IS ORDERED that Plaintiffs shall recover from Defendant the amount of $900,000 in full compensation for the attorneys’ fees and costs incurred by Plaintiffs in connection with this action and the related appeals,” the ruling stated.
The other $480,000, bringing the total to $1.3 million, came from a second lawsuit by Safari Club International, which also successfully challenged the law.
SAF responded to the settlement ruling by poking fun at California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who apparently doesn’t care that his little anti-gun tantrums cost state citizens millions of dollars.
“Gavin Newsom passed a law to attack the First Amendment just because he was made about a .22lr rifle that was meant for junior shooters,” SAF wrote in a post on X. “That little stunt cost California taxpayers over a million dollar, not including whatever CADOJ spent on their own lawyers. $350k to SAF, $550k to the CRPA coalition of plaintiffs in the same lawsuit, and another $480k in the parallel Safari Club International case on the same issues. Will Newsom apologize to taxpayers for his waste?”
The law, passed in 2022, was quickly recognized as an affront not only to the First Amendment but also as an attempt to keep lawful citizens from exercising their Second Amendment rights. The latest ruling highlighted that fact, handing a major victory to gun-rights plaintiffs.
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