In a September 19 decision in United States v. Quiroz, a judge in the Western District of Texas struck down the federal law barring those under indictment for a felony offense from receiving firearms, finding that the ban “departs from this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.” One notable aspect of the decision is its […]
There are several extremely worrying trends from what I’ve seen in the still nascent post-Bruen Second Amendment case law. These concerns don’t arise from disagreement with constitutional originalism or with the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Second Amendment. They are concerns about lower courts’ capacity (and perhaps willingness) to apply a historical method in a […]
The Supreme Court’s “Long Conference” will take place this Wednesday, September 28. At the long conference, the justices will consider the many petitions for certiorari filed over the summer as well as remaining earlier-filed petitions. The odds of a grant of certiorari at the long conference are especially low, if history is any guide. Many […]
In a recent case pending before the Ohio Supreme Court, State v. Philpotts, a majority of the justices sua sponte ordered the parties to file supplemental briefs addressing Bruen’s effect on the case. The challenged Ohio law in that case bars those under indictment for violent felonies from possessing firearms pending the disposition of the […]
In Antonyuk v. Bruen, a district court judge recently suggested in dicta that New York’s list of sensitive places where guns are prohibited is unconstitutional under the standard set forth in Bruen. I summarized that opinion here, including why its analysis of sensitive places appears inconsistent with Bruen’s directive to reason by analogy to determine […]
As litigators and judges grapple with Bruen’s historical tradition test, one issue that is sure to surface repeatedly is the status of group prohibitions on gun possession. Notably absent from the list of “presumptively lawful” restrictions in Heller is the federal prohibition on gun possession by those convicted of domestic-violence misdemeanor offenses, codified at 18 […]
Bruen itself is not clear on how many laws, or laws from what time period specifically, are needed to establish a historical tradition of regulation. The opinion tells us it is “doubtful” that three colonial-era regulations “could suffice to show a tradition of public-carry regulation,” and suggests that laws from the Founding era are accorded […]
In Bruen, Justice Thomas highlights the story of a Black schoolteacher in post-bellum Maryland who was given a revolver by the local sheriff to protect his students against violence by white mobs (at 52-53). Despite the historical setting, arming teachers to address a pressing social problem of violence will sound familiar to the opinion’s contemporary […]
We’re well into September, but the Supreme Court remains in summer recess and therefore there are not major updates on any previously-filed cert petitions. We’re adding a new case to the tracker this week: Carnes v. United States. The question presented in Carnes is “[w]hether the government, to establish that the defendant is an ‘unlawful user’ […]
We are excited to announce that the Center will co-host a symposium in New York on September 23 in coordination with the New York University Law Review. The theme is Gun Rights and Regulation after Bruen. The Supreme Court’s decision in Bruen marked a fundamental shift in Second Amendment law, announcing a new methodology […]
