A unanimous three-judge Fifth Circuit panel on Wednesday declared the Federal Switchblade Act unconstitutional in Knife Rights v. Blanche. The judges invalidated the law’s bar on interstate production and commerce in switchblades because those arms predated the 1950s, appeared during the American Revolution, and stay in common use and legal in most jurisdictions. Chief Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, joined by Judges Don Willet and Cory Wilson, linked Congress’s action to hysteria after James Dean’s 1955 Rebel Without a Cause.