Knife Rights filed a Reply Brief in its appeal of a U.S. District Court's absurd ruling in its ongoing Federal Civil Rights lawsuit against New York City and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. The 30-page legal brief was filed on August 28, 2014, and can be viewed at: www.KnifeRights.org/Knife_Rights_Reply_Brief.pdf

The Reply Brief is the final document needed for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to consider the appeal brought by Knife Rights. It was submitted in response to the District Attorney and City's briefs opposing the appeal. You can read the nonsensical government brief here: www.KnifeRights.org/DAoppbrief.pdf

The lawsuit challenges the City's practice of treating common folding knives as prohibited "gravity knives," then arresting and prosecuting law-abiding knife owners and intimidating retailers into paying large cash sanctions to avoid prosecution. Under the City's vague and subjective approach, it is impossible to know what knives will be treated as legal.

Knife Rights' original appeal can be read here: www.KnifeRights.org/Knife_Rights_Appeal_Brief.pdf

Last Fall, U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest ruled that the case could not proceed because Knife Rights and four other plaintiffs (who were falsely arrested or threatened with prosecution for possessing common folding knives) did not identify specific knives being wrongly classified in their complaint, and therefore lacked standing to sue. Requiring identification of specific prohibited knives, in a case about the inability to know what is prohibited or permitted, turns the very idea of this lawsuit on its head.

Judge Forrest then added insult to injury by refusing a request to let Knife Rights amend the complaint to attempt to comply with her requirement that specific knives be identified.

The next step will be oral arguments in front of a panel of three Second Circuit Court of Appeals judges as early as this Fall, after which the judges will render a decision.

Knife Rights' fight to stop the persecution of knife owners in NYC and to prevent this from spreading to other cities will continue. You can support this lawsuit with a tax-deductible charitable contribution to the Knife Rights Foundation: www.KnifeRights.org/Donate