Explore The NRA Universe Of Websites

High Court Punts Second Amendment Challenge, But Eyes More Cases

Monday, May 4, 2020

High Court Punts Second Amendment Challenge, But Eyes More Cases

The U.S. Supreme Court last week took another pass on deciding a case that could have helped to clarify proper Second Amendment analysis and bring defiant lower courts into line. 

An unsigned opinion issued on April 27 remanded the NRA-backed case of New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, Inc. v. City of New York (NYSRPA v. NYC) to the lower courts without addressing whether the regulations challenged in the case violated the right to keep and bear arms.

The court held that because the challenged laws had been changed after it decided to hear the case, the original dispute was moot. Any residual challenges to the new laws, according to the court, would have to be decided in the lower courts with an amended complaint and additional development of the evidentiary record.  

At issue in the case was whether the Second Amendment allowed New York City to prohibit licensed handgun owners from transporting their guns, locked in a case and unloaded, outside the city for lawful purposes.

The two purposes specifically mentioned in the plaintiffscomplaint were traveling to a second home in New York and to ranges outside the city for practice or competition. Nevertheless, the plaintiffs also claimed that the Second Amendment requires “unrestricted access to gun ranges and shooting events in order to practice and perfect safe gun handling skills.” And their complaint requested not only the ability to leave the city with their lawfully licensed handguns but “[a]ny such further relief as the [c]ourt deems just and proper.”

Notwithstanding the fact that it had argued for years in the lower courts that the regulations were necessary to protect public safety, New York City abruptly changed its tune after the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. 

The city subsequently admitted that the challenged regulations had no bearing on public safety and changed the rules to allow licensees to take their guns to ranges, competitions, and second homes outside municipal limits. Nevertheless, the changes specifically required that the licensees had to travel “directly” between their residences and the permitted destinations and that any portion of the trip within the city itself had to be “continuous and uninterrupted.” 

The state legislature also amended the states handgun licensing statute to specifically authorize New York City licensees to undertake a “direc[t]” trip to a range or competition outside the five boroughs.

The majoritys dodge in refusing to resolve the case on the merits generated two additional opinions, one concurring and one dissenting.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh (appointed by President Trump in October 2018) agreed with the majority that the original dispute was moot and that further proceedings should occur first in the lower courts. 

But Kavanaugh wrote separately to underscore that he agreed with a dissent written by Justice Samuel Alito as it pertained to the methodology of resolving cases under the courts precedents in District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. City of Chicago. He added: “I share JUSTICE ALITOs concern that some federal and state courts may not be properly applying Heller and McDonald. The Court should address that issue soon, perhaps in one of the several Second Amendment cases with petitions for certiorari now pending before the Court.”

Justice Alito’s dissent, joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch (appointed by President Trump in April 2017) and in part by Justice Clarence Thomas, criticized the court for “permit[ing] our docket to be manipulated in a way that should not be countenanced.”

He also took his colleagues to task for failing to correctly apply the courts precedents on mootness. “[I]n this case,” Justice Alito wrote, “we must apply the well-established standards for determining whether a case is moot, and under those standards, we still have a live case before us.”

Alito specifically mentioned the undefined qualifications of “direct” trips and “uninterrupted” travel. This, he noted, would not permit the “unrestricted access” to which the plaintiffs claimed they had a right, as it would seemingly prohibit breaks for gas, food, or coffee necessary to reach destinations that might be several hours away. It would also suppress the plaintiffsability to engage in other lawful conduct during their trips, such as picking up a friend along the way or stopping for a visit or a trip to the store.

Thus, Alito concluded, the court had jurisdiction to decide whether the supposed relief provided by the new state and city laws adequately addressed the deprivation of rights raised by the plaintiffs.

Alito also noted that a decision on the merits of the Second Amendment claim would have allowed the plaintiffs to recoup attorneys fees and damages. 

Instead, the city – at taxpayer expense – gamed the system by forcing the plaintiffs to spend millions to press their claims through seven years of litigation, only to claim at the last moment that the dispute had been resolved without a Supreme Court decision that the city had actually violated the plaintiffsrights.

Alito illustrated the effect of the courts decision by comparing it to a hypothetical in which “a city council, seeking to suppress a local papers opposition to some of its programs, adopts an ordinance prohibiting the publication of any editorial without the approval of a city official.” If the paper challenged the rule, “arguing the First Amendment confers the unrestricted right to editorialize without prior approval,” its claim would not be moot just because the city changed its mind to allow editorials on all of its programs but one.

Alito went on to analyze the merits of the plaintiffsSecond Amendment claims.

The meaningful exercise of that right, Alito noted, requires an opportunity for the owner of a gun to “take [the] gun to a range in order to gain and maintain the skill necessary to use it responsibly.” The citys restrictions therefore affected a core aspect of the Second Amendment right to keep a handgun for self-protection.

The city would accordingly have to justify its rules restricting that right with reference to some historical precedent dating back to the adoption of the Second Amendment. But it had entirely failed to do so. “[N]either the City, the courts below, nor any of the many amici supporting the City have shown that municipalities during the founding era prevented gun owners from taking their guns outside city limits for practice,” Alito wrote.

In more encouraging news, however, the Supreme Court quickly signaled that it may be considering another Second Amendment case “soon” as Justice Kavanaugh put it in his concurrence. A popular court-watching blog reported on Tuesday that by the end of the day on which the court had issued its opinion in NYSRPA v. NYC, it had also distributed 10 additional Second Amendment cases to be considered during a Friday conference on which new cases the court may hear.

Three of these cases are NRA-supported challenges, including two that concern “may-issue” permitting schemes and the right to bear arms in public for self-defense (Rogers v. Grewal and  Malpasso v. Pallozzi ) and one challenging a ban on popular semiautomatic firearms (Worman v. Healy). On Wednesday, counsel for the plaintiffs in Rogers filed a supplemental brief explaining why that case is optimal to correct the improper analysis being applied by lower courts in Second Amendment cases.

It takes the votes of four justices to decide to hear a case. Between Kavanaugh and the three dissenters in NYSRPA v. NYC, it seems very likely there is sufficient concern about the lower courtsdismissive and erroneous treatment of the Second Amendment for these justices to try again to take remedial action.

News on the courts decision whether to hear any of the 10 cases could come as early as next week, perhaps as early as Monday morning, May 4. As always, your NRA will keep you apprised of all late-breaking developments.

TRENDING NOW
Seattle’s Gun Tax: A Textbook Case on the Law of Inverse Consequences

News  

Monday, March 27, 2023

Seattle’s Gun Tax: A Textbook Case on the Law of Inverse Consequences

The law of inverse or unintended consequences refers to outcomes that are the reverse of the planned or expected results. As described in another context, “the law of unintended consequences could create a perverse effect contrary to ...

Florida: House Passes Constitutional Carry

Friday, March 24, 2023

Florida: House Passes Constitutional Carry

Today, the House voted 76-32 to pass House Bill 543, the constitutional carry bill.

This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things… In San Francisco

News  

Monday, March 27, 2023

This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things… In San Francisco

Most Americans understand that our country has had a problem with a surge in crime over the last couple of years. In response, there has been a surge in gun purchases, and millions of law-abiding citizens ...

Updates to ATF Final Rule on Stabilizing Braces

News  

Monday, January 30, 2023

Updates to ATF Final Rule on Stabilizing Braces

On Monday, January 30, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives’ (ATF) published the final Factoring Criteria for Firearms with Attached “Stabilizing Braces” rule for public inspection in the federal register.

Biden’s Executive Order Targeting Gun Ownership

News  

Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Biden’s Executive Order Targeting Gun Ownership

On Tuesday, Joe Biden issued an executive order on gun control that could accurately be described as a mile wide and an inch deep.

Bloomberg and His Anti-Gun Apparatus Continue to Mislead Voters

News  

Monday, March 27, 2023

Bloomberg and His Anti-Gun Apparatus Continue to Mislead Voters

It’s no deep secret that anti-gun billionaire Mike Bloomberg will do anything, and at any cost, to promote his agenda of eradicating the Second Amendment. He launched an anti-gun organization, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, then ...

Colorado: Assault Weapon Ban Committee Hearing Scheduled!

Monday, March 27, 2023

Colorado: Assault Weapon Ban Committee Hearing Scheduled!

On March 29, the House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on House Bill 23-1230 (“HB 23-1230”), which bans the manufacturing, importing, purchasing, selling, offering to sell, or transferring ownership of what the drafters have defined as ...

Florida: Senate’s Constitutional Carry Passes Committee

Thursday, March 9, 2023

Florida: Senate’s Constitutional Carry Passes Committee

Today, the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee voted 11-6 to approve Senate Bill 150, constitutional carry, with an amendment aligning the language with the House’s version. It will now go to the full Senate for further consideration.

Florida: 2023 Session Convened, Senate Committee Hearing Constitutional Carry

Wednesday, March 8, 2023

Florida: 2023 Session Convened, Senate Committee Hearing Constitutional Carry

Yesterday, March 7th, the Florida Legislature began the 2023 legislative session. Tomorrow, at 9:00AM, the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee will hear Senate Bill 150, the Senate’s constitutional carry bill.

North Carolina: Right-to-Carry Expansion and Permit-to-Purchase Repeal VETOED by Gov. Cooper

Friday, March 24, 2023

North Carolina: Right-to-Carry Expansion and Permit-to-Purchase Repeal VETOED by Gov. Cooper

Unfortunately, Governor Roy Cooper vetoed Senate Bill 41, a bill that recognizes law-abiding citizens’ right to self-defense while attending a church with a school attached and also repeals the redundant permit-to-purchase system.  This was expected from the anti-gun Governor ...

MORE TRENDING +
LESS TRENDING -

More Like This From Around The NRA

NRA ILA

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.