(The Center Square) — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled California’s ban on standard-capacity gun magazines is constitutional, overturning a lower court ruling. 

Citing New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that requires that gun control laws be consistent with the nation’s historical precedent of firearm regulation, District Court Judge Roger Benitez ruled the standard-capacity magazine ban unconstitutional in 2023. 

California Attorney General Rob Bonta appealed the ruling before it went into effect.

The Ninth Circuit majority opinion found that magazines, as “optional accessories,” are not protected firearms, or protected accessories under the Second Amendment. It also ruled the ban falls within the general precedent of “protecting innocent persons by prohibiting especially dangerous uses of weapons and by regulating components necessary to the firing of a firearm.”

Three judges dissented, finding the majority’s ruling inconsistent with Bruen and the Second Amendment.

“The majority’s rationale in this case, followed to its (il)logical conclusion, means that now — perhaps even more so than before Bruen — only the jankiest guns are even facially protected by the Second Amendment,” wrote Judge Lawrence VanDyke in dissent. “And even those can be banned outright consistent with the Second Amendment so long as the government can find a historical analogue with the flimsiest connection to the challenged law.”

“It sadly seems our court has somehow now established an even more government friendly version of the very interest balancing the Supreme Court rejected in Bruen,” continued VanDyke. “In doing so today, this court once again improves its undefeated record against the Second Amendment, demonstrating both its misunderstanding of firearms and its disdain for the People’s constitutional right to have them in the process.”

Bonta celebrated the decision, saying, “This commonsense restriction on how many rounds a gunman can fire before they must pause to reload has been identified as a critical intervention to limit a lone shooter’s capacity to turn shootings into mass casualty attacks.”

When providing historical precedent for Second Amendment restrictions to support California’s gun control laws, Bonta’s office has controversially cited bans on gun and ammunition possession by “Negros, Mulattos, slaves, or persons of color” and laws that “prohibited sales to Indians.” 

(The Center Square) – Recovery funds to people and entities in western North Carolina from the General Assembly exceed $1.4 billion total following Gov. Josh Stein’s signing Thursday of a fourth bill for $524 million responding to Hurricane Helene.

This legislation also included more help for eastern North Carolina’s recovery from Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence in 2018. Lawmakers appropriated $217 million their way.

“Since Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina, the General Assembly has come together to address real-time needs of our citizens,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, R-Rockingham. “This bill will make a world of difference for the people of western North Carolina and I’m proud to see it become law. I look forward to continuing our efforts to support western North Carolina as it recovers and rebuilds.”

Democratic Gov. Josh Stein called the legislation, the first he’s signed, a promising step forward.

“But we are nowhere near done,” Stein said. “I will keep pushing to ensure western North Carolina is not forgotten.”

Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, said it won’t be the last from the House of Representatives and lawmakers on Jones Street.

This is the 25th week of recovery from Helene. The storm made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in Dekle Beach, Fla., on Sept. 26. It was expected to come north to the Appalachian Mountains; however, the rainfall total from its dissipation there exceeded all forecasts.

Some places got more than 30 inches, most were at 24 inches or more. Due to terrain, water often rushed before it pooled and flooded – very unlike the flooding that happens in the coastal plains.

Within the legislation known as Disaster Recovery Act of 2025 – Part 1, or House Bill 47, is $200 million to Helene-specific crop-loss and farm restoration; $120 million for rebuilding and repairing home; and $100 million for repairing private roads and bridges.

There’s also money for small business infrastructure grants; debris removal; volunteer organizations deemed essential; volunteer fire departments; learning recovery for students; and travel and tourism marketing.

In the earlier packages by the Legislature, the Disaster Recovery Act of 2024 passed Oct. 9. The $273 million package was mostly to different state agencies and local governments which could then use the money to help those most affected. It included $250 million for the state and local match of federal disaster assistance programs; $16 million for the Department of Public Instruction for school nutrition employee compensation; $5 million for the State Board of Elections Administration changes; and $2 million to the Office of State Budget and Management for grants.

The bill also included assistance in education; agriculture and environmental quality; transportation; retirements; taxes; the Department of Health and Human Services; and some election-related changes.

The Disaster Recovery Act of 2024 – Part II was passed Oct. 24. This legislation provided more than $877 million toward relief from Helene, and another $40 million for four storms. The largest portions were $100 million to the Local Government Commission, $100 million to the Department of Environmental Quality, and $75 million for state and local match of federal disaster assistance programs.

The third package, Disaster Relief-3/Budget/Various Law Changes, required a veto override to get through and has since been litigated. The legislation was 132 pages, the first 13 of which were related to Helene and the remainder for the “various law changes” that include shifting authorities from elected offices. The latter was the sticking point.

Congress approved in December about $9 billion of a $110 billion package to the state. This does not include FEMA money, projected in the billions of dollars. The total is expected to help block development programs; farmers; infrastructure to include roads, highways and bridges; and drinking water infrastructure.

FEMA, in a release Wednesday, said its assistance has eclipsed $10 million.

(The Center Square) – Tom Homan, designated border czar by President Donald Trump, said decisions judges trying to stop the immigration enforcement efforts of the administration “aren’t going to stop us from making this country safe again.”

He also said that “a secure border saves lives” and that data backs up that assertion. He spoke on Thursday during an immigration roundtable hosted in Sarasota, Fla., by Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

The veteran law enforcement official and former Border Patrol agent said also that members of Congress that don’t “wake up” to the realities of enforcing the nation’s immigration laws need to leave office via the ballot box and that voters need to find replacements that will support border enforcement. 

“The rule of law is what this country is about,” Homan said. “We’re the most welcoming country in the world. We take in more refugees than any country, but we’ve got to have the rule of law because people are dying. That’s why I fight as hard as I fight.

“Well, I found it remarkable that any district judge has the authority to overrule the president’s executive orders and what he basically wanted us to do is turn the planes around in mid-air full of terrorists and bring them back into the United States, which is ridiculous and we didn’t do it. Now we turn to litigation.”

Homan was discussing a class action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union earlier this week trying to overturn Trump’s executive order that uses the Enemy Aliens Act to find, arrest and deport violent Venezuelan prison gang members from the transnational criminal organization Tren de Aragua. 

The border czar was also joined by former acting Homeland Security director and America First Policy Institute Center for Homeland Security & Immigration Vice President Chad Wolf and New College of Florida President Richard Corcoran. 

“The bottom line is we’re not going to stop doing what we’re doing,” Homan said. “We’re going to arrest aliens today. We’re going to arrest TDA today. We’re going to deport TDA today. We’re going to deport criminals every single day.”

He said since Trump took office in January, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have arrested 40,000 people illegally in the country’s interior, with most of them being public safety and national security threats.

Homan also said that 400 people on the terrorist watch list crossed the southern border during President Joe Biden’s term, with only 16 coming across during Trump’s first term.

DeSantis signed on Feb. 13 what he terms the nation’s strongest state immigration enforcement law that created a State Board of Immigration Enforcement and made it a state crime for people to illegally enter Florida.

“Where were these District Court judges when all of these folks were coming into the United States, right?” DeSantis said. “The U.S. Supreme Court had a chance to nip all this in the bud about a month ago and they could have just been aggressive and put these district judges in their place. 

“But the principle is, are we ruled by the consent of the governed under elections and under a written constitution or are we ruled by a district judge in D.C., Hawaii, wherever the hell they can shop for a judge to find somebody and then that trumps everything that is in the Constitution in terms of executive powers, because that’s what they’ll keep doing if you let that happen.”

DeSantis was also critical of the visa program that allows companies to import cheaper workers to replace native employees.

“It’s a way to just have dirt cheap labor and then export all the associated costs with that to the general public, rather than hire people legally,” DeSantis said of the H-1B visa program and “diversity lottery” for these cards.

Wolf said that in addition to enforcing the nation’s immigration laws on the border, reforms need to be made for the nation’s legal immigration system. 

“The word I’d like to use with what the Trump administration has done in this first 50 days is velocity,” Wolf said. “The amount of action the Trump administration has done in these 50 or 60 days has been unprecedented. I hope that continues for the next three and a half years.

“I hope we don’t slow down because there is so much change that can be done, not only at the border, with removing individuals, but also on that legal side and really fix that because it is being abused as the governor said. There’s a lot to continue to be done on border security and immigration.”