As the November 7 oral argument in Rahimi approaches, the respondent’s brief is due on Wednesday, September 27. Any amicus briefs in support of the respondent are due one week later, on October 4. The Center for Prosecution Integrity filed a brief in support of the respondent ahead of schedule, on September 22. The Supreme […]
As described in a recent SCOTUS Gun Watch update, the government has sought and received an extension of the deadline to seek certiorari in Range v. Attorney General (the petition, should the government seek certiorari, is now due on October 5). While it’s not unusual based on past practice for a party to pursue, and […]
The Court has set oral argument in Rahimi for Tuesday, November 7. Rahimi is currently the only case set for argument that day, and the Court typically holds oral argument beginning at 10 am Eastern time. In Guedes, one of three pending petitions involving the ATF’s bump stock ban, the government filed its response on September 5. The […]
Earlier this summer, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in United States v. Rahimi, in which the Fifth Circuit invalidated the federal ban on those subject to certain domestic violence restraining orders (or DVROs) possessing firearms for the duration of the order. We previously covered the Fifth Circuit’s decision here and here. On August 14, the […]
In Rahimi, a total of 39 amicus briefs were filed between August 17 and August 22—all but one in support of the government. The briefs were filed by organizations ranging from a group of state chief judges and justices, to the American Medical Association, to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. We’ll have a […]
The major development last week at the Supreme Court was the Court’s text order on August 8 granting the government’s emergency docket application for a stay in Garland v. Vanderstok. A district court judge had entered judgment striking down ATF’s rule classifying certain gun component parts as “firearms” under the GCA on administrative law grounds […]
[This is a guest post based on a paper that was presented at the 2023 Firearms Law Works-In-Progress Workshop. The Workshop is held each year on a home-and-away basis with the University of Wyoming Firearms Research Center. This post does not necessarily represent the views of the Duke Center for Firearms Law.] In 2021, Professor Adrian […]
There’s no update yet on the oral argument date in Rahimi, although I suspect that information may be coming within the next few weeks. On July 27, the government made an emergency application to the Court in Garland v. Vanderstok. Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas issued an order in the case on […]
There are just a few updates on the Supreme Court front this week. It is likely the Supreme Court will not announce the oral argument date in Rahimi for another few weeks. The Court released its oral argument schedule for early-mid October last week. The other possible argument dates this year are October 30-November 1, November […]
With the end of the Supreme Court term, the major news remains the Court’s decision to take a major Second Amendment case (Rahimi) just one year after deciding Bruen. That is a marked departure from the Court’s past practice, as the justices generally avoided Second Amendment cases between 2010–when the Court decided McDonald–and 2019–when the Court […]
The Bruen decision brought about a sea change for Second Amendment law, and the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the Rahimi case next year brings questions about its methodology to the forefront. Many scholars are writing about the Bruen decision and its effects. My own contribution, The Dead Hand of a Silent Past: Bruen, Gun […]
One year and one week after Bruen was decided, the Supreme Court granted certiorari today in its first post-Bruen Second Amendment case: United States v. Rahimi. The grant came on the final day of the 2022-2023 Term, a day on which the Court also released major decisions in legal challenges to the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness […]
The Court issued an orders list this morning but did not decide whether to grant the petition in Rahimi, which it considered at last Thursday’s conference. It’s not entirely clear when the Court will decide on the Rahimi petition. The Court typically holds a “clean-up” conference immediately before its summer recess. An orders list from that conference […]
As summarized in last week’s update, the major upcoming developments on the Second Amendment front are the cert decisions in Rahimi and Seekins. These will likely come on Monday, June 26, following the Court’s final conference of the term this Thursday, June 22. This week, I’m adding one new case to the tracker: Kyung Chang Industry […]
Seven amicus briefs were filed in support of the federal government’s petition for certiorari in United States v. Rahimi, which presents the question of whether 922(g)(8)—the federal ban on those subject to certain domestic-violence restraining orders possessing firearms—is constitutional under the Second Amendment. We previously covered the Fifth Circuit’s decision in Rahimi here and here. […]
As we approach the end of the 2022-2023 Supreme Court Term, public attention is primarily focused on the decisions in cases such as Students for Fair Admissions (challenges to the consideration of race in college admissions under the Civil Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause), 303 Creative (a case implicating religious freedom under the First Amendment and […]
In Rahimi, the respondent filed his brief in opposition to the government’s cert petition on May 30. The respondent’s brief leans heavily on the fact that Bruen is less than one year old—Rahimi argues that “[a] successful constitutional challenge to a seldom prosecuted gun crime is not an emergency” and emphasizes the importance of “percolation—the independent evaluation […]
On May 17, the Court denied the pending emergency application to reverse a district court decision upholding Illinois’ assault weapons and large-capacity magazine ban pending appeal in Bevis v. Naperville. There was no explanation for the denial, and there were no written dissents or statements issued. It’s not surprising to me that the Court declined […]
The emergency application to reverse the district court decision denying a preliminary injunction of Illinois’ assault weapons and LCM ban in Bevis is now fully briefed and ready for decision. The state’s response, which was filed on May 10, argues that the Court should deny the application due to the interlocutory posture of the case, the […]
On April 26, the plaintiffs in a case challenging Illinois’ new law banning assault weapons and large-capacity magazines filed an application for an emergency injunction with the Supreme Court. Judge Virginia Kendall of the Northern District of Illinois denied a motion to preliminarily enjoin the Illinois law on February 17, and the plaintiffs appealed her […]
On March 31, U.S. District Court Judge Katherine Menendez issued a decision in Worth v. Harrington finding portions of a Minnesota statute unconstitutional and enjoining the state from enforcing the statute in the future. The provision struck down in Worth is a part of the state’s permit-to-carry statute. In Minnesota, a permit is required to […]
The Court has requested a response in Vullo and set the response deadline for May 24, although a motion was filed to extend that date to June 23. In Cargill, a case dealing with ATF’s rule criminalizing possession of bump stock devices, the Court granted a motion to extend Cargill’s response deadline to June 7. On April […]
The Court denied certiorari today in Gazzola, a challenge to certain New York regulations on the commercial sale of firearms, noting that the petition had been filed “before judgment.” Vullo, a First Amendment challenge involving state government guidance and press urging banks and insurance companies to consider the reputational risks of doing business with gun-rights […]
On April 6, the federal government filed a petition for certiorari in Cargill v. Garland. In January, an en banc Fifth Circuit struck down the Trump-era ATF rule prohibiting bump-stock devices after finding that ATF lacked statutory authorization to ban bump stocks because “a bump stock is excluded from the technical definition of ‘machinegun’ set […]
As the Rahimi response deadline approaches on April 20, there were two new amicus briefs filed last week in Vullo. Montana and 17 other states filed a brief in support of the NRA, asserting an interest in “a vibrant and robust right of free private expression.” The states argue that, “[i]f the Second Circuit’s decision is […]
