SCOTUS Gun Watch – Week of 4/19/21

At last Friday’s conference, the Supreme Court considered 5 gun cases—3 challenges to the felon prohibitor, 1 public carry case (for the third time), and 1 challenge to a firearm storage law. It was the most Second Amendment challenges the justices have considered all at once since last summer’s post­NYSRPA denial of all 10 then-pending cases. In today’s order list, the Court denied review in 4 of the 5 and did not act on other. It denied cert for all the felon prohibitor cases and in the firearm storage law, but declined to act again on Corlett, the challenge to New York’s concealed carry licensing law.

I have no special insight, but my best guess is that Corlett is less likely to get plenary review now that it has been relisted so many times. As veteran Court expert John Elwood helpfully explained here, the chances of full review decrease the more times a case gets relisted. It’s possible some justices are writing a per curiam opinion reversing the Second Circuit without oral argument or briefing—which the Court did after relisting Caetano 10 times(!) after the initial conference. But, unlike Caetano, the issues here are complex and nuanced, and it’s not clear where the Court would find the clear, undisputed error it did in Caetano. More likely, in my opinion, is that one or more justices is writing a dissent from the denial of cert. But that too is a little strange. Less than a year ago, the Supreme Court denied cert in (among other cases), Rogers v. Grewal, that raised almost the same constitutional question as Corlett about how these type of good cause laws cohere with the Second Amendment. Justice Thomas, joined partially by Justice Kavanaugh, already dissented from that denial. One wonders what more there is to say.

Petitions Pending

Petitions Disposed