Law Prof’s Tweet Cited in Brief by Second Amendment Lawyer
On Thursday, University of California, Los Angeles law professor Adam Winkler was tweeting about his favorite Tony Curtis movie and an undocumented immigrant housekeeper hired by a California gubernatorial candidate.
But Winkler is getting more high-profile notice for an Aug. 16 tweet because it was cited in a brief filed in a Chicago gun-rights case by Second Amendment lawyer Alan Gura, according to Josh Blackman’s Blog.
Gura’s brief (PDF) claimed lawyers for the city of Chicago misstated the standards for review in legal arguments defending a citywide ban on gun ranges. Gura argued the city should not have relied on an article by Winkler that was written before Gura’s Supreme Court win in District of Columbia v. Heller.
As evidence of the city’s misplaced reliance, Gura points to a Twitter post by Winkler himself. “Reasonable gun control is one thing, this another,” Winkler tweeted. “Chicago requires 1 hour on range for handgun permit but bars ranges.”
The brief uses this citation: “www.twitter.com/ adamwinkler, Aug. 16, 2010, 3:18 p.m. (citation omitted) (last visited Sept. 26, 2010),” prompting Legal Blog Watch to wonder if there is a Bluebook citation format for tweets.
Winkler noticed Blackman’s blog post. “This is making some news surprisingly,” he tweeted.
