Preliminary Injunction - No Open Carry in the Library

We had our first hearing on March 8. MOC insisted on a ruling as to whether the TRO was appropriate before the matter of the preliminary injunction could be considered. Judge Rosemarie Aquilina ruled against MOC.  LINK
Despite arguments that the library's no-guns police is unconstitutional, lacks authority under applicable laws, is preempted by Michigan's firearms laws, and unsupported by any of the alleged facts, a preliminary injunction is issued. PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION

Nobody is allowed to carry a firearm openly in the library.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that any and all members of the general public after posted notice shall concurrently be preliminarily enjoined and restrained, directly and indirectly, whether acting alone or in concert with others, including any officer, agent, employee, contractor and/or representative of Defendant, until further Order of this Court, from entering any of Plaintiff CADL's buildings or library branches while carrying, brandishing, or concealing without proper permit, any form of weapon or firearm in violation of CADL's Weapons Policy.

The court has expressly ruled that the basis for this decision is that CADL is an "authority" and not a city, village, township, or county that would be preempted under MCL § 123.1101 and 123.1102.  Here's what the law says:

A local unit of government shall not impose special taxation on, enact or enforce any ordinance or regulation pertaining to, or regulate in any other manner the ownership, registration, purchase, sale, transfer, transportation, or possession of pistols or other firearms, ammunition for pistols or other firearms, or components of pistols or other firearms, except as otherwise provided by federal law or a law of this state.

We argued that, so what if CADL is an "authority"? CADL is an instrumentality of its constituent municipalities and is indistinguishable from a city, village, township, or county for purposes of preemption by MCL § 123.1102. Therefore, the statute expressly preempts CADL's firearms regulation. And as I will explain in future posts (and as we said in our brief), state firearms laws preempt local firearms regulations anyway. I feel strongly that is the case and if the the library gets to regulate firearms just because it is not a city, village, township, or county, Michigan gun owners are in deep, deep trouble, as I'll explain in a future post.