May 19, 201115 yr On repeated occasions, the Puerto Rico Supreme Court (PRSC) has stated that in its mission to do justice, discretion is the most powerful instrument reserved to judges. Banco Metropolitano v. Berríos, 110 D.P.R. 721, 725 (1981). In the scope of judicial performance, discretion does not mean power to act in one form or another, rendering the rest of law an abstraction, but rather a form of reasonableness applied to judicial discernment to arrive at a Just conclusion. I like that part. A slap down to judges who use "judicial discretion" to legislate from the bench and support their own beliefs and agendas, even if it means ignoring the law they're considering.
May 19, 201115 yr I was born and raised in PR, and I know this process firsthand. In 1991 my wife and I were carjacked, and even though the perps were arrested and we went to trial, they were let off with a suspended sentence. We ended up having to move because we were afraid of retaliation and I began researching what I needed to do get a legal firearm and a carry permit there. After consulting with attorneys, we decided it was not worth the aggravation and expense, and shortly thereafter we decided to leave the island and move to the "mainland". While I applaud the court's decision, in recognizing the fundamental 2a right and overturning the Court of First Instance's denial, this decision really does nothing to change the current laws on the books and the processes around being able to legally obtain a firearm. They are just as bad or worse than NJ's. The PR Firearms Act is actually very similar to NJ's law, where you must go before a court to prove your "worthiness" to get a carry permit. It's a long drawn out process that was set up by lawyers and benefits the lawyers (a la NYC). What needs to be done now in PR is to use this precedent to present a lawsuit similar to what the 2AF is doing here in NJ, to challenge the constitutionality of the law itself.
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