1996—In Fierro v. Gomez, a Ninth Circuit panel, in an opinion by Judge Harry Pregerson, rules that California’s method of execution by lethal gas violates the Eighth Amendment.
2017—Defying the Supreme Court’s landmark Second Amendment ruling in Heller v. District of Columbia (2008), the en banc Fourth Circuit rules by a 10-to-4 vote (in Kolbe v. Hogan) that Maryland’s ban on so-called “assault weapons” and high-capacity magazines is constitutionally permissible. (Read Charles Cooke and David French for extensive critiques of the Fourth Circuit’s evasions and errors.)