"It makes all the difference in the world that this one guy went down and filled out an absolutely meaningless piece of paper which you knew in advance was a futile act," Neily says. "It was not intentional on the part of Alan, Bob, and myself, but it was intentional on the part of Dick and Dane, and it was very important that Dane had that insight and did that." Heller slid in because he had a permit denied: a clear injury with a paper trail.I picked up on the importance of Heller's application from basically the first moment that standing came up as a possible issue. In fact I remember complimenting Alan and the rest of the legal team at a very early stage for having thought to include it. I was surprised at the time that they were reluctant to take credit for the idea, and didn't necessarily think it would make a lot of difference. There was case law (based on the First Amendment) to back them up on the idea that making an application was not strictly necessary to challenge a law. Yet, having made that application became absolutely crucial.
This entry was published Mon Feb 16 02:10:41 CST 2009 by TriggerFinger and last updated 2009-02-16 02:10:41.0. [Tweet]
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