SCOTUS Gun Watch – Week of 5/25/20
Last Friday, the Supreme Court did something that veteran SCOTUS expert John Elwood said it hasn’t ever done before—it relisted cases for another conference before releasing an order list from the prior one. Normally, the Court considers a set of cases at conference (usually on Friday) and the next week (usually on Monday morning) releases an order list that shows the cases for which it has granted cert and denied cert. Cases discussed at conference that are not on the order list—i.e., those for which it hasn’t granted or denied cert—are typically either cases being held for another case (as almost all of the cases below were for NYSRPA) or are cases that the Court will consider again at the next conference, “relisted” cases (as now all of the cases below are). What was surprising about Friday’s relisting of these cases to the upcoming conference is that the Court did not wait until this morning’s order list laying out what cases were granted and denied first. Needless to say, we got no more clarity from this morning’s order list about Second Amendment cases. They are all heading to conference again this week. We’ll get an order list next Monday, June 1 at 9:30am that should let us know if one of these will be taken up (or whether they will be relisted yet again).
Mance now gears up to head to its 5th conference, spread out over more than a year. Many others have been around for quite a while too. It’s not entirely clear why the Court hasn’t decided which (if any) Second Amendment case it will take, but we may soon find out.
Case | Ct. Below | Pet. Filed | Implicated Law/Issue | Status |
Mance v. Barr | 5th Cir. | 19-Nov-18 | Federal ban on out-of-state handgun purchases | distributed for
28-May-20 conf. |
Rogers v. Grewal | 3rd Cir. | 20-Dec-18 | NJ “may issue” public carry regime | distributed for
28-May-20 conf. |
Pena v. Horan | 9th Cir. | 28-Dec-18 | California’s Unsafe Handgun Act (microstamping, etc.) | distributed for
28-May-20 conf. |
Gould v. Lipson | 1st Cir. | 1-Apr-19 | MA “may issue” public carry regime (as implemented locally) | distributed for
28-May-20 conf. |
Cheeseman v. Polillo | N.J. | 28-June-19 | NJ “may issue” public carry regime | distributed for
28-May-20 conf. |
Ciolek v. New Jersey | N.J. | 18-July-19 | NJ “may issue” public carry regime | distributed for
28-May-20 conf. |
Daniel v. Armslist | Wisc. | 29-July-19 | Scope of immunity for gun-broker website under Communications Decency Act | Cert Denied |
Remington Arms v. Soto | Conn. | 1-Aug-19 | Scope of gunmaker immunity under the Protection for Lawful Commerce in Arms Act | Cert Denied |
Guedes v. ATF | D.C. Cir. | 29-Aug-19 | Ban on bump stocks | Cert Denied |
Medina v. Barr | D.C. Cir. | 30-Aug-19 | Ban on felon possession under 922(g)(1) (as applied) | Cert Denied |
Worman v. Healey | 1st Cir. | 23-Sep-19 | Ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines | distributed for
28-May-20 conf. |
Malpasso v. Pallozzi | 4th Cir. | 26-Sep-19 | MD “may issue” public carry regime | distributed for
28-May-20 conf. |
Pennsylvania v. Hicks | Penn. | 27-Sep-19 | How a firearm can factor into reasonable suspicion under the Fourth Amendment | Cert Denied |
Culp v. Raoul | 7th Cir. | 10-Oct-19 | IL refusal to grant carry permits to most non-residents | distributed for
28-May-20 conf. |
Matsura v. United States | 9th Cir. | 25-Oct-19 | Unlawful possession of a firearm by a prohibited person | Cert Granted; vacated and remanded |
Baker v. City of Trenton, MI | 6th Cir. | 26-Nov-19 | Reasonableness of warrantless search in light of the Second Amendment | Cert Denied |
Wilson v. Cook County, IL | 7th Circ. | 27-Nov-19 | Assault weapons and high-capacity magazine ban | distributed for
28-May-20 conf. |
Beers v. Barr | 3rd Cir. | 9-Jan-20 | Unlawful possession of a firearm by a prohibited person (involuntarily committed) | Cert Granted; vacated and remanded |
Rodriguez v. San Jose | 9th Cir. | 21-Feb-20 | Warrantless search and seizure of firearms under Second & Fourth Amendments | resp. requested –due 22-June-20 |