BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation and Defense Distributed, Inc. of Texas have filed for an injunction in their federal case challenging a New Jersey statute that prohibits the publication of computer files containing digital firearms information in an ongoing legal action.
SAF and Defense Distributed are asking the court to set an expedited briefing schedule and resolve their motion promptly. The motion may be read here.
“The New Jersey attorney general is wielding a blatantly unconstitutional speech crime against us,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “and it’s time for this nonsense to stop. New Jersey’s strategy has been to deploy evasive tactics to delay court rulings. Not only is New Jersey engaging in prior restraint, causing us irreparable harm across the country, but also the legal gamesmanship is deliberately designed to increase our litigation costs, in what appears to be an effort to discourage us from further pursuit of our case.”
The motion was filed in the Fifth U.S. Court of Appeals. SAF and Defense Distributed are represented by attorneys Chad Flores of Houston, Josh Blackman of Houston and Matthew A. Goldstein of Washington, D.C.
The motion says New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin’s motive is to “stop any substantive ruling anywhere.” Gottlieb said this is nothing more than an effort to stonewall the case and prevent it from moving forward.
“We have chased the AG from one court to another and another and another,” Gottlieb said, “all in an effort to enjoin the same unconstitutional censorship. In each court we have asked for the same relief we seek here, and in each court the AG opposed with procedural gamesmanship and obstruction. He’s not simply trying to delay justice; he’s dancing around in an attempt to deny justice altogether in this case. All this does is reinforce our belief he expects to ultimately lose and he’s trying to delay the inevitable. It’s unconscionable for this to be allowed to continue.”