Gov. Gavin Newsom denounced in starkly personal terms a federal judge’s upending of the state’s restrictions on assault weapons as officials announced the filing Thursday of a formal notice that they will appeal the decision.
They described last week’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez as an outlier that conflicts with at least six other federal decisions upholding assault weapons laws in California and elsewhere, a ruling that is designed to get the issue before a recently more conservative U.S. Supreme Court.
Newsom, the son of a judge, denounced Benitez as “a stone cold ideologue. He is a wholly owned subsidiary of the gun lobby of the National Rifle Association.”
The state already is appealing the same judge’s 2017 ruling against the state’s nearly two-decade-old ban on the sales and purchases of magazines holding more than 10 bullets, and his ruling last year blocking a 2019 California law requiring background checks for anyone buying ammunition.
“We need to call this federal judge out. He will continue to do damage, mark my word,” Newsom said. “This is a very focused agenda to work through this judge, where the decision’s already made before it’s even presented, who writes ‘press releases’ on behalf of the gun lobby.”