Gun case out of Nassau Co, “Due Process Hearing Ordered on Retention of Firearms“:
“A federal judge has ruled that the Nassau County Sheriff’s Department violated the rights of a woman who was the subject of an order of protection by retaining her firearms without a due process hearing. Eastern District Judge Joan Azrack, writing in Panzella v. County of Nassau, 13-cv-5640, ordered the county on Wednesday to hold a hearing by Sept. 25 on returning plaintiff Christine Panzella’s two shotguns and two rifles, which the sheriff’s department had seized in 2012 after her ex-husband filed an order of protection against her … After Panzella’s ex-husband withdrew his petition to extend the order of protection in March 2013, Panzella requested several times to have her firearms returned. But the sheriff’s department refused to do so unless it received a court order directing their return … By insisting on a court order, the judge wrote, the defendants effectively required Panzella to file an Article 78 state law petition for the return of her firearms. Panzella sued Nassau County, Sheriff Michael Sposato, his department and five deputies, alleging violations of her Second and Fourteenth amendment rights as well as state law claims for conversion and replevin … The judge granted Panzella’s motion for summary judgment on the due process claim, writing that the defendants provided no basis for retaining Panzella’s firearms … As to Panzella’s Second Amendment claims, the defendants argued that they should be dismissed because the right to bear arms is not a right to “hold some particular gun” … “
The way it was explained to me, the case has some positive points for requiring due process and that the 2A claim should not have been made for cases such as this.