SCOTUS Gun Watch – Week of 1/13/20

The new year at the Supreme Court started the same as the last one ended: silence and anticipation. The new orders released this morning held no signs of action on NYSRPA and news that the Court did not act on the cert petitions in Guedes, which challenges the Trump Administration’s ban on bump stocks, or Worman, which challenges Massachusetts laws banning assault weapons and large-capacity magazines. It had just considered those cases  for the first time at its conference last Friday.

Since it granted cert in NYSRPA, the Supreme Court has consistently held gun cases, at least those raising Second Amendment challenges. Notably, however, it denied cert in Medina, challenging the federal firearm prohibitor as applied to a man with an old, non-violent felony conviction. And now it has decided to hold (or at least not deny at the first chance), Guedes though it raises no Second Amendment challenge. Perhaps it wants to explore the administrative law questions at issue there—or maybe a denial will come soon.

This week also saw one new relevant cert petition filed—Beers v. Barr—raising an as-applied challenge to the federal law barring firearm possession for anyone who has been involuntarily committed to a mental institution. Powerhouse big law firm Sidley Austin, along with Sarah O’Rourke Schrup from the Northwestern Supreme Court practicum, represent the petitioner in the case. Given the Court’s treatment of Medina’s as-applied challenge, it may have less appetite for person-based challenges, but we will have to wait and see.