Congress Banned Interstate Switchblade Sales in 1958. The 5th Circuit Just Struck the Law Down.

The win: In Knife Rights, Inc. v. Blanche, a unanimous Fifth Circuit panel (Judges Elrod, Willett, and Wilson) held that the Federal Switchblade Act's ban on making, shipping, or distributing switchblades in interstate commerce violates the Second Amendment. That law carried up to five years in prison.

Why it matters:

• Knives are arms. Applying Bruen, the court said switchblades fall within the Second Amendment's plain text. Knives have been used for defense throughout American history, and springblade designs go back centuries.
• Common use, then and now. The record shows millions of automatically opening knives in the U.S. today, used for everyday utility, hunting, fishing, camping, and self-defense.
• No historical match. The government pointed to 19th-century rules on how concealable weapons could be carried. But of nearly 200 pre-1900 blade statutes it relied on, only two restricted sales the way this law does. The court called that "outlier territory."

The bigger picture: This comes the same week a federal judge struck New York's body-armor ban. Courts are taking the text-and-history test seriously, and that means old federal bans get no free pass.

Source: Eugene Volokh, The Volokh Conspiracy (Reason)