CAD and CAM at the Third Circuit

November 19, 2024

Yesterday New Jersey filed a transcript of the oral argument held before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals on November 4th. Attorney Chad Flores argued for Defense Distributed. The argument was a surprising one, since no one that morning expected to argue the actual merits of the case, which involved the speech value of 3D gun files.

If it sounds like Mr. Flores has had years to get dug into the case, that’s no accident. This is the first time arguments about the federal CAD/CAM distinction have been heard in a federal court, and the panel was actually engaged. I won’t predict that we “won,” but I do get the strong sense of a remand.

We’ll learn more about this distinction and the ontological practices it produced in our community very shortly.

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