Chris Johnson

The process to get a case to the Supreme Court is difficult and expensive. For Eva Marie Gardner, she has done it with no visible help.

In January 2021, Eva Gardner was driving her car on I-270 in Maryland. This expressway extends out of D.C. to Frederick, MD. From there it is just a short distance into PA. It is one of the feeder highways for people that work in D.C. but who can’t afford to live in or near D.C.

While driving, an unlicensed driver “forced” her off the road with the use of a “PIT” maneuver. Both the other driver and Ms. Gardner exited their vehicles. Ms. Gardner stated that she displayed her handgun to deter him.

When the cops arrived, the alleged assailant spoke to them comely. The assailant was unable to provide a valid driver’s license, “proof of car ownership” which I take to mean registration, nor proof of insurance. Note, Maryland is a state that requires you to have car insurance.

Having listened to the two parties, the police let the alleged assailant depart, never to be heard from again. They arrested Ms. Gardner for violation of Maryland Criminal Law § 5-203, carrying a firearm without a Maryland permit.

She would have had an attorney for her criminal trial. She then went through the appeals process pro se, meaning without a lawyer, representing herself.

She had a valid Virginia CCW. If I’m reading her petition correctly, PA doesn’t recognize her VA permit either.

How common is this?

This type of case happens way to often. I refer to the state south of me as “Mordor.” If I were to accidentally carry a shell casing into that state, I would be committing a felony under MA state law. You are required to have a permit to own ammunition or ammunition components, much less an actual firearm.

Post Bruen, it takes around 9 months to get a non-resident CCW, which includes in person interviews.

People violating reciprocity laws is very common. There is a mall that is famous among CCW holders; there are parts of the mall that exist in freedom and others where you are subject to the crown of MA. You can be walking through a store, legally carrying your firearm, take a step over and suddenly you have committed a felony.

There is a scene in the movie Sergeant York where he is at the bar, orders a drink, and goes to sit down with it. The barkeep stops him because he would have crossed the county line into a dry county. He could drink whiskey all day long on one side of the room, but not the other.

That is what it is like. There is no path you can take out of VT, NH, and ME where you don’t have to pass through a gun hating state. MA to the south, NY to the west, and Canada to the north.

I would guess this sort of violation of imaginary lines on a map happens 1000s of times a day.

What makes this case interesting?

Absolutely nothing. This was a pro se case. The Supreme Court sees hundreds, if not a few thousand, pro se cases a year. Most are submitted by jailhouse lawyers. Most are summarily denied cert.

Ms. Gardner is likely a felon for this single stop. She’s no different from all the rest.

The case is so uninteresting that the state of Maryland officially declined to submit a response. This was submitted on an editable PDF. In other words, they couldn’t be bothered to even type something up. Somebody filled in the blanks in the PDF and sent it off.

The petition for writ of certiorari was filed on 2025/10/22. Maryland said “Not interested” on 2025/11/03. The case was distributed for conference 3 days later. (That’s fast).

On 2025/11/12 the Supreme Court “requested” a response from Maryland by 2025/12/12.

On 2025/11/19 the panic had set in. Maryland asked for a 45 day extension, claiming they had not looked at the case and were busy with 7 other important cases, two of which were also Second Amendment Cases.

The extension was granted.

Yes, the Supreme Court told the country, “Pay attention to this case”.

That simple request set the wheels in motion. The request was picked up in the weekly orders. People said, “Huh, what case is this?” and looked it up.

What happened?

Word got out in the Second Amendment legal community. Washington Gun Law mentioned it, then did a video on it. So did Mark Smith and a few others.

This means that on 2025/12/11 the first of the reinforcements showed up.

First up was the Second Amendment Foundation with NRA backing via the California Rifle & Pistol Association (CRPA) and more. The basic argument is that this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation made exceptions for travelers when travelers were in locations demanding permitting or licensing.

The Heller Foundation points out that Supreme Court precedents permit only modest, ministerial burdens on visitors. Maryland’s “preclearance regime” is not modest. They point out that Maryland is forcing travelers to forgo one right for another. And that Maryland’s regime is an outlier.

Thank all the constitutional carry states for that bit.

Ted Cruz and his fellow Senators spoke up. Their contribution might be the better statement of the question. It will be interesting to see what the question SCOTUS presents when they grant cert.

This brief focuses on errors in the inferior courts opinions. The inferior courts used footnote 9 from Bruen.

The Cato Institute hammers on the right to travel is a constitutionally protected right. You have to either give up your right to travel or your right to armed self-defense.

Virginia, New Hampshire, and 22 other states provided their input as well.

What are we hoping for?

First, we are hoping that this case does not become an as applied opinion. We want the case to be granted cert and for The Court to find that CCWs are just like driver’s licenses. It doesn’t matter which state issues your license; it is good in all states.

When you add Constitutional Carry to the mix, this means that citizens of half the states in the Union would be able to carry anywhere in the states with just proof of residence in their home state.

This might also be a stepping stone for ending the bs about buying firearms out of state.

Many years ago my mentor explained to me how the director of the lab had almost gotten himself in trouble. The sort of trouble that ends with “I hereby sentence you to X years.” All because he failed to honor the color of money.

“Color of money” is a term of art within some parts of the government. In this case the lab had a considerable budget. They had been authorized by Congress to purchase a supercomputer. They ordered the supercomputer but were told it would be a while to get it. “A while” was measured in quarters.

The lab needed a supercomptuter now. They were offered a different model that could be delivered and set up within a couple of months.

This is what they decided to do. The problem was they required a few million dollars to buy this second supercomputer. This required another authorization from Congress.

The request was put in, money was coming, it would be there in just a few weeks.

The issue?

That second computer was very popular. There were other people who had cash now to buy it.

The lab director decided he used money that he was authorized to spend to buy the supercomputer. That money was marked (colored) for a different use later in the year.

A few weeks later, Congress authorized money for the second supercomputer, and all the accounts balanced perfectly.

The issue? Using the wrong colored money was technically not allowed. It was the sort of thing that gets you jail time if the powers that be decide they don’t like you.

It appears that this is what happened to Trump

the President relied on 10 U.S.C. §12406(3)

This statue has specific language: unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States..

And that is what happened. The government argues that “the regular forces” means regular federal employees and law enforcement. The courts are saying that “the regular forces” means the military.

Since the administration did not argue that they could not take care of the problem by deploying the U.S. Marines, they had not met the requirement of “unable with the regular forces”.

Now this is where it gets interesting. The court did not address the question of “Can the administration deploy regular forces?”

The Posse Comitatus Act forbids deploying regular forces to enforce laws except under certain circumstances.

But, as Justice Kavanaugh pointed out, there are other statutes the administration can use to authorize the deployment of “the regular forces”.

In other words, it looks like the city of Chicago is about to get what they asked for, good and hard.

I hope you all had an excellent Christmas. That you connected with your family and friends.

Two feasts are done, and it is time to find places for all the new loot.

For me, the two most happy making gifts were a pair of (expensive for my son) fur lined moccasins and a small book, “The Constitution of the United States and Other Founding Documents”

What was the most surprising in a good way gift you received? What was your favorite reaction to a gift you gave?

The first feast day is done. Friends and family gathered, and we exchanged gifts for those that will not be in the house today.

Santa arrived and filled our stockings with Christmas joy.

Here is wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!

From Ally:

It isn’t often you get to compare your writing with that of your father and grandfather. My grandfather was a PhD with published works. I should try to find his thesis and other publications. I have read his unpublished autobiography.

My father had a few articles published, and I’m sure he wrote more. I should attempt to get his master’s thesis from ODU.

Yesterday my daughter stumbled onto a couple of articles published by my father. I write like he did. I guess I speak like he did as well.

I’m positive that much of my very dry humor comes from him.

His layout was what was known as an “operational” layout. This meant that you could run it realistically. He had cards that represented loads and destinations. The yard operators would have to make up trains, which would then be moved over the main line to different yards by other operators.

Still other operators would run the locals. These were the little trains that went to the different businesses to pick up and drop off loads.

A standard operating session would be 7 or more operators working over 3 hours on a 6:1 fast clock. In other words, they would simulate 18 hours of operations in just 3 hours. Generally, was made up by the fact that the locations did not have real distances between them. So the dairy was only a 1/2 mile from the yard, while it was more like 6 miles in reality.

Regardless, I love and miss Dad. If you feel like it, go read his entire article. He has pictures and more.

Brown University is in Rhode Island, one of the anti-gun states. There are no guns allowed on campus.

It is a gun free zone within a gun free city within a gun free state. Yet all of those things failed.

To provide a sense of security, the college webpage has a section on security cameras. They list some 800 security cameras and where each is located and their field of view.

Which is precisely the sort of information a bad guy would want to know because it shows not only the areas that are under surveillance but also the blind spots. Which the shooter took advantage of.

Which brings up the experiment done by a news organization several years ago to “prove” that guns don’t save lives. They told the selected “protector” that they were the only person with a gun in the room. That there was going to be a mass shooting event, simulated, and they were to stop the shooter.

Everybody except for the protector was in on the experiment, unbeknownst to the protector. Many of the protectors bragged to their “student” neighbors about being the protector.

Of course, when the bad guy entered the room, the protector never successfully stopped them. The entire experiment was set up for failure.

This was compared to a similar experiment set up in Texas. In the Texas experiment, the protectors were chosen at random; the level of experience the different protectors had varied from none to significant. They used simunation (blue guns that shoot nasty little pellets).

What they found was that the total number of victims was reduced in all cases. That in some situations the attack was stopped shortly after it began. There were no false shootings.

One of the interesting sequences was when the bad guy came into the room with the good guy. The good guy put multiple rounds on target before being “killed”. During the debrief, they asked why he only took body shots after noticing the body armor.

His reply, “I’ve been shot with those things; I wasn’t going to shoot somebody in the face with them.”

The point of this rambling is that guns save lives. This was another example of a gun free zone creating a victim pending zone.

Keep your head on a swivel, things are not getting better.

It is difficult to comprehend what a piston powered steam engine is capable of doing. It is a different sort of beast than the internal combustion engine.

For those that are old, you might have grown up with a manual transmission. There is a considerable skill in learning how to balance the clutch and engine speed to get smooth motion.

This is hidden in a value we call “horse power”. Horse power is also expressed in Watts. There are 745 watts to a HP, depending on sources. Close counts in this calculation. HP and watts are a measure of work.

Consider picking up a barbell. By measuring the force required to lift it, the time it takes to lift it, and the distance moved, we can measure the power used.

Now consider that same barbell, but it is too heavy to lift even a fraction of an inch. You strain trying to lift it. You have expended energy but have no performed any work. Hence the HP and watts are zero.

Regardless, an internal combustion engine needs some type of clutch to allow the engine to run at a comfortable speed while slowly bringing a different part of the powertrain up to speed.

With a steam engine, you have full torque at every speed. They are spectacular engines at slow speeds.

This takes us to present times.

I’m using FreeCAD to create the 3D model of the engines. A side advantage of this is that I also get assemblies that allow me to check how all the parts fit together. All very nice. This has helped me identify errors in my reading of the drawings.

A simple little thing: The cylinder has a built in bracket system. This is a face used to mount the cylinder to the base and the face used to attach the steam chest. These faces are slightly offset from the bore.

Which leads to my error, times 3. The cylinder mounting holes are not on the center line of the cylinder. They are instead on the center line of the bore. The bore is offset away from the steam chest and away from the mounting holes.

My error? I’ve put those damn mounting holes in the wrong place multiple times.

In the end, I added a spreadsheet to the model. For every shared measurement between parts, I’ve put that value in the spreadsheet. This means that I can do things like change the stroke by changing one value. Sort of.

My understanding of this mechanical marvel is much improved from being able to see the parts work together.

Another thing I noticed was that all the engine plans have an assumption you will be working with castings. They expect you to hire a pattern maker to create the patterns and then have your local foundry cast them.

While I would love to make my castings from iron, I will start with making them from aluminum. And the new tools I have and new skills I have in woodworking allow me to make real patterns.

My final goal is to have master patterns and molding boards for patterns for a couple of different engines. If I can accomplish that and make a few of them, I’ll be very happy.

Next stop, learning how to be a safe boilermaker. And not the happy drink type.

This is the second Christmas without my parents. Last year, about now, I was finding out just how nasty my brother actually is. Which gratefully caused me to connect with “The Cousins”.

This year I am doing a bit better. Not great, but better.

Growing up, Christmas had rules. You got three “major” presents. Mom made sure they matched you and, to her, more importantly, that the value of your set of presents exactly matched your siblings.

I swear that Mom would make that balance within a few nickels every year.

As the number of grandkids grew and Mom became more mentally fragile, she couldn’t keep up with matching presents to kids. She switched what she was doing.

Each kid, grandchild, spouse or significant other, and “adopted” child received the same thing: a beautiful Christmas ornament and a cash gift.

The first time this happened, it was difficult for me; I was broke, so that cash was extremely helpful. But the ornament matched me, and that was what I was truly thankful for, but I also needed to express my gratitude for the cash. I didn’t want my parents to think it was just the cash that was important to me.

Over the years Mom’s ability to choose personal ornaments declined, but it was still a staple.

Last year there were no ornaments from Mom. She and Dad were gone.

As Christmas started growing nearer this year, I felt the loss of my parents overwhelming me. Knowing that there would be no ornaments, no cash from Mom under the tree.

I fixed it. I got the addresses of all the cousins, the names of their spouses and significant others, any children they had, adopted or natural. Then I got ornaments for them all. The female adults got ornaments from one collection, and everybody else got them from a different collection.

Those ornaments with a $10 bill were packaged up and sent out.

Everybody that Mom would have sent a gift to received a gift. Even my brother.

It worked. All who have reported so far have been very pleased.

The Question

What is a Christmas tradition that your family has that you took over when your parents passed or that you want your offspring to take up when you pass?