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http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20030226_2092.html
Supreme Court Throws Out Gun Records Case
Supreme Court Throws Out Gun Records Case, Citing New Law Designed to Keep Information Private
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON Feb. 26 —
The Supreme Court bowed out of a dispute for now over the openness of government gun records, citing a new law designed to keep information private.
The justices on Wednesday canceled next week's arguments in a case that would have settled whether the government had to make public details of a weapons database, including names of gun shops and gun owners whose weapons were used in crimes.
The case tested the bounds of the Freedom of Information Act, which allows reporters and other outsiders to get unclassified government records that officials would not otherwise release.
The court's action does not end the dispute between the city of Chicago and the Bush administration, which will not release information that the city wants for its lawsuit against the gun industry.
The justices instructed an appeals court to consider if a congressional provision restricting the release of gun information affects the case.
Congressional Republicans included the restriction in a spending bill passed this month. It prevents the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from spending money to release the data.
The city is trying to recover money spent fighting gun violence. Lawrence Rosenthal, Chicago's attorney, said the ban should not affect the case because Chicago is willing to pay the costs of providing the data, as is routine under the information act.
Congressional supporters "did not have the votes to actually forbid the release of this data," Rosenthal said. "All they had enough support to do was make sure the taxpayers didn't have to foot the bill for releasing this information."
The administration, the National Rifle Association and other groups had argued that confidential records are needed to safeguard investigations and protect people's privacy.
NRA attorney Stephen Halbrook said the case's dismissal is a victory for the government.
"The records aren't going to be divulged as long as this case continues," he said.
Halbrook said he had expected the justices to protect the information, and after more fights in a lower court the case "will probably end up back in the lap of the Supreme Court."
At issue is access to information on about 200,000 firearm traces a year, in which police, after confiscating a weapon in a crime, track down who made it, sold it and bought it.
The ATF releases some information now, after a time lapse, but erases items such as the name of the seller and the buyer.
Matt Nosanchuk, litigation director of the Violence Policy Center, a nonprofit gun control research group, said that the congressional provision "was designed to cut the city of Chicago's case off at its knees."
"It just postpones a resolution of this important issue, not only for the city of Chicago but everyone else," he said.
Arguments in the case had been scheduled for Tuesday.
The case is Department of Justice v. City of Chicago, 02-322.
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.