Appeals Court Says Guns In Vehicles OK

Oklahoma’s law requiring employers to allow workers to have guns in their locked vehicles at work is valid, an appeals court in Denver ruled today.

The ruling overturns a court order by a Tulsa judge in 2007.

A panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided 3-0 that U.S. District Judge Terrence Kern erred in concluding that the law is pre-empted by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act.

The judges said Kern’s ruling “interferes with Oklahoma’s police powers and essentially promulgates a court-made safety standard — a standard which OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) has explicitly refrained from implementing on its own. Such action is beyond the province of federal courts.”

The law sparked a national dispute over gun rights, pitting some employers and gun-control advocates against workers and the National Rifle Association.

“We’re pleased with the court’s decision,” Charlie Price, a spokesman for Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson, told the Tulsa World. “It was our opinion that the law is constitutional, and the court agreed with us today.”

The law was passed in two stages in 2004 and 2005 by legislators who angered by the Weyerhauser Corp. firing eight workers at a timber mill in southeastern Oklahoma because they had guns in their vehicles at the mill in violation of company policy.

Over the years, a changing lineup of employers, including the Whirlpool Corp., which later dropped out, and more recently ConocoPhillips, challenged the law, starting with a 2004 lawsuit. Kern issued his permanent injunction in response to the challenges.

Goveror Henry and Edmondson, the defendants in the lawsuit, appealed Kern’s ruling.

ConocoPhillips spokesman Rich Johnson said Wednesday that “the safety of our employees is a top priority of ConocoPhillips, and we are disappointed with today’s decision.” He said the company has not had time to determine what its next step will be.

In an unusual step, Edmondson had an attorney for the National Rifle Association, instead of one of his own lawyers, argue the case before the appeals court in November.
The court had allowed the NRA to submit arguments as a “friend of the court.”

Share |