SCOTUS Gun Watch – Week of 3/29/21

Last Wednesday, the Ninth Circuit issued its ruling in Young v. Hawaii, which upheld Hawaii’s permitting scheme requiring a person to prove a heightened need for self-defense in public to secure a permit to openly carry a handgun. At its conference last Friday, the Supreme Court considered the cert petition in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Corlett, which concerns the very similar requirement in New York law’s for one to secure a permit to carry a handgun concealed. The case is not on this morning’s order list, so the Court neither granted nor denied review. This afternoon, the Court relisted the case for another conference on April 1 and thus will consider it again. Although no sure sign of success, a case that gets relisted has a higher chance of eventual review. As veteran Court watchers say, “[i]n recent years, one of the more reliable signals that the justices are interested in hearing a case is when they take up a petition at conference and then hold it over for further consideration.” As the public carry issue continues to generate heated disagreement in the courts of appeals, it cannot be too long until the Supreme Court takes a case to resolve the issue.

The Court will also consider several as-applied challengers to federal possessory prohibitions at its April 16th conference, so we could be in for some big Second Amendment news multiple times over the next few weeks.

Petitions Pending

Petitions Disposed