DC city government seeks en banc rehearing of gun ban case News
DC city government seeks en banc rehearing of gun ban case

[JURIST] The city government of Washington, DC [official website] on Monday asked [petition, text] the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals [official website] for an en banc rehearing of a case that led to a controversial ruling last month invalidating the city's handgun ban [JURIST report]. City lawyers warn that the current ruling "severely limits" the ability of local and federal legislatures to regulate firearms to protect citizens and law-enforcement officers.

By a 2-1 panel vote in March, the judges deciding Parker v. District of Columbia relied on the Second Amendment [FindLaw text] to overturn a 31-year old ban on handguns in the District of Columbia. Mayor Adrian Fenty [official website] and the city argued that the panel's interpretation of the Second Amendment is "contrary to [the precedents] of nearly every other federal court of appeals, as well as the highest local court in this jurisdiction." The case is widely expected to end up before the US Supreme Court, regardless of who ultimately wins in the DC Circuit Court. AP has more. SCOTUSblog has additional coverage.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

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