SCOTUS Gun Watch – Week of 11/9/20

According to my review, the Court’s order list today marks the first time Justice Barrett has participated in decisions to grant or deny plenary review in fully briefed cases. (Last week's order list noted that she did not participate in those decisions, and this week's order list has no such notation.) No gun cases were on the agenda at last Friday’s conference, so this order list doesn’t tell us anything about her impact on the gun docket. But this coming Friday the Court will consider two gun cases, with another at the conference the following week. That means that as early as next Monday, we may have an initial view of whether and how Justice Barrett’s presence changes the landscape. To be sure, these two cases are not square Second Amendment challenges, so a denial wouldn’t tell us a whole lot. (A grant, on the other hand, just might.) In any case, now that the Court is again fully staffed, and with a steady stream of gun cases making their way up there, it won’t be long before we can judge the initial impact that a Justice Barrett makes to the future of firearms law and the Second Amendment.

*Note to readers: I plan to keep all the cert petitions from this Term on the list, even after they are denied. Doing so provides an overview for the types of issues the Court had before it this year—and might provide some insight into why the Court takes the one it eventually will.