In 2009, KC3 defended Michael Mitchell when he was fired from his job and kicked out of school by the University of Ky. for having a firearm stored in his private vehicle parked on University property. That case was finally decided by the Ky. Supreme Court. KC3 won that case in a 7-0 opinion. Now, the City of Pikeville has appealed the decision of the Ky. Court of Appeals when that Court ruled 3-0 in KC3's favor.
Anyone that wants to see the particulars of this case can go here:
https://www.ar15.com/forums/Hometown/KC3-v-City-of-Pikeville/27-658237/  

Are you expecting a similar result in the Supreme Court?  I keep hearing people say they are pretty liberal.

I am expecting them to read the law and rule accordingly. If we can't trust our court system to do that then our laws have no meaning and there is no reason to pass any laws.
The 3-judge panel that gave KC3 the victory in the Court of Appeals were all also "very liberal". One of them, Pamela Goodwine, was the Fayette Circuit judge that originally dismissed the Michael Mitchell case in 2009. If you can't trust our court system, why would anyone file a lawsuit?

On Feb. 21, I posted that Pikeville has appealed the ruling of the Ky. Court of Appeals in the lawsuit by KC3. In studying the Pikeville request for review, it seems that they have condensed their defense into one argument. Our original complaint accused them of numerous violations of KRS 65.870 and KRS 237.110. They are now asking the Ky. Supreme Court to ignore state law and decide the case on only one thing, carrying a firearm in a  "School Zone" as defined by the Federal Gun Free School Zone Act.  That law says that firearms can not be carried within 1000' of the outside perimeter of school property, not from the school building. These can be huge areas of almost any town or city. In Pikeville, it would encompass about 65% of the entire city. If the Ky. Supreme Court will agree with Pikeville all of the areas that are disputed by KC3 would then be covered by the Federal law and state law would not be considered. It appears Pikeville has decided that any argument they could make concerning state law is a loser for them and they are putting all of their chips on the line with the Federal law. The problem is that the Federal law has an exception that says that the law "DOES NOT APPLY" to a person with a concealed carry license  issued by the same state as where the school is located. Pikeville wants the Supreme Court to rule that NOBODY may carry a firearm in a school zone, openly or concealed, licensed or unlicensed. with the possible exception of LEO. If the Supreme Court will do that, there will be almost no way to carry a gun within the City of Pikeville and most other cities in Ky. You might find a spot where it was legal to carry but you sure couldn't move around very much and you probably couldn't get to or from a place like that without passing through a prohibited place. This is a last-ditch, desperate effort by Pikeville to bypass all state gun laws and all restrictions that they have ignored for years. I doubt that the Supreme Court will take that bait.
As always, your right to carry a firearm is on the line. I am often amazed at how little interest there is in these cases and how few people are willing to step up and help win them. KC3 is a public corporation. Membership in KC3 is voluntary and open to all adults. All of the Board members of KC3 are volunteers and they make decisions that determine the actions taken by the organization.  Since 1995 KC3 has been at the forefront of the fight for gun rights in Ky.

Not sure if you paid attention the games the various judges and courts were playing during the Covid lockdowns but it was very clear they taking politically motivated actions to protect Beshear.  It was so bad that last year the legislature modified where lawsuits could filed when suing the government.  They eliminated the requirement to file only in Frankfort and now people could file in their home counties.  The one judge in Frankfort was ruling in favor of Beshear every single time.  Beshears orders always stood, everyone else was dismissed.  

The KY Supreme Court didn't act in that obvious of a manner but once the cases started to get filed in other counties and work their way through the system the Supreme Court issued a stay against all the other decisions "until they could review it" and then they never set a timeline for when they would review it.  Then months later a timeline emerged for several months down the road, as that date approached the had to reschedule the case.  It was very obvious they were delaying the hearings to benefit Beshear as his orders remained in effect and all cases that would have removed some of his restrictions were stayed.  They road that out until the covid numbers dropped really low and the mask mandates were set to expire.  Then Beshear could act like it was his idea for rolling back the requirements.  It was 100% political games by the KY Supreme Court.  

I do not trust our court system.  The trick is judge shop and find one you know will rule in your favor and then find someone with political connections to the higher courts to control the outcome.  That is my view of how our court system works here after seeing how they operated with Covid lawsuits.  My summery is generalized, I can try to find specific cases and the one Frankfort judge name that always ruled for Beshear if you like.

Judge Shepard has ruled in favor of liberal democratic causes for many years before Andy Beshear was elected to any office. None of this pertains to anything that KC3 is involved in. We have never filed a lawsuit against the state, we are not likely to do that and never filed any suit in Franklin Circuit Court. I am sorry to hear that you dislike our court system, but once again, none of this pertains to anything KC3 does.

I'm a a little late here but I read this as they are asking the KYSC to gut Section 1, Part 7 of the KY Constitution?

To quote the Homer Simpson meme, "none of this pertains to anything KC3 does, so far".  

Here is why I do not trust our state court system.  Below is a post from a civil rights attorney who has also been fighting the battle.  He shows examples of how the KY Supreme Court makes political rulings instead of Constitutional rulings.  They always seem to provide cover for Beshear, as Governor and when he was AG.   Gun rights are civil rights, while the attorneys cases might be about different rights it all falls into the same category.  I hope that is not situation for the KC3 case.


Chris Wiest, Attorney at Law

Since COVID-19 began, we have had a significant degree of success in federal court, challenging the Governor of Kentucky, and, more recently, the Biden Administration.


But that has admittedly not been true in state court, and in particular, in Kentucky's Supreme Court.  Frankly, it is why from the start, we have lodged almost every challenge we have brought in federal court.  
Governor Beshear predicted at a press conference that we would not prevail in the Kentucky Supreme Court, and, with at least one Justice making Facebook posts prior to hearings about the Governor with the Governor's team Kentucky hashtag, to say its been an uphill battle is an understatement.


Last May, we challenged the Governor's continued restrictions after the General Assembly took action.  We put on expert medical and scientific evidence about masks (namely that they did not work).  We proved the restrictions were nonsense.  And the Circuit Court issued a thorough, well written decision (link in comments to that decision).


And two weeks ago, predictably, the Kentucky Supreme Court reversed -- saying that our client -- who had had prior enforcement taken against him over the Governor's mandates -- and even though we presented evidence from Dr. Steven Stack that those mandates were still being enforced against businesses -- did not have standing because no one specifically threatened him.


That was a particularly curious result when the same Court held the Governor had standing to challenge the new laws even though no one threatened him.  And they reached a similar result when Andy Beshear was the Attorney General suing Matt Bevin.

You may have a point about the court and Beshear but this case does not involve Beshear. And thus far the Kentucky Supreme Court outside of that has followed the laws and state constitution on most rulings.  

And I believe the KY Supreme Court has ruled against Beshear on some things in the past.  Just not as much as they should have.

Beshear might not directly be involved but you know he has an opinion on this.  We also see the liberals in Louisville push for more and more gun control.  Beshear is up for re-election and what better way to appeal to all the progressives than by throwing his support behind the Pikeville case and cities being able to create their own gun control.  He gets to slap the Republican controlled super majorities in the face, pass gun control, and get a ton of support from the liberals in the bigger cities.  It's a bold strategy but so was sending State Troopers to churches to harass people.  The Governor has shown nothing but disrespect towards freedom, rights, and anything related to the right.  The KY Supreme Court covered for him in delaying hearings so long that most of the issues became moot anyway.  

My main point is if the KY Supreme Court is going to make obvious partisan and political rulings in a couple cases...then the courts are compromised.  It goes beyond leaning one way or another when they uphold a statute for one case and ignore it for another because of political connections.

Given how red Kentucky is right now I don't think Beshear will want to get involved in the case but as mentioned he has already done a lot of things I didn't think he would do.