This Week's SCOTUS Action on Pending Second Amendment Petitions
As I highlighted at the beginning of the week, heading into the new Term, the Supreme Court had (by my count) 14 outstanding petitions for certiorari raising Second Amendment or firearms-law related questions. Many of these cases had been considered at conferences last Term and, we suspect, are being held pending the outcome in NYSRPA. Coming out of the Long Conference, the Court did, however, dispose of two of the cases it recently considered:
| Armament Services v. Barr | 3d Cir. | 19-June-19 | What constitutes a “willful” violation of the Gun Control Act for revocation of a Federal Firearm License | distributed 1-Oct-19 conference & cert denied 7-Oct-19 |
| Miller v. Ferguson | 9th Cir. | 23-July-19 | Ban on firearm possession (as sufficient restraint to invoke habeas) | distributed 1-Oct-19 conference & cert denied 7-Oct-19 |
These were probably the two least likely to be affected by any outcome in NYSRPA, so it's perhaps not surprising that the Court acted on them now.
The Court also denied the City's Suggestion of Mootness in NYSRPA. But it also said that "[t]he question of mootness will be subject to further consideration at oral argument, and the parties should be prepared to discuss it." There's no doubt, then, that we'll soon have oral argument in a case raising a Second Amendment challenge for the first time since March 2, 2010.