2020 has certainly been a wild and unpredictable year. While that is obviously true in the wider world, it is also true in the Second Amendment context. This year saw the Supreme Court’s decision in the first argued Second Amendment case in a decade, and that decision gave no guidance on substance; the denial of […]
This week brings the docketing of another Second Amendment challenge, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Corlett. In this next NYSRPA case, Paul Clement again represents the challengers. But this time, instead of a narrow challenge to an outlier city rule, it’s a much broader challenge to the state’s requirement that those seeking […]
Two new Second Amendment cert petitions have been docketed in the past week. The first is Mai v. United States. The case is an as-applied challenge to 922(g), but to its mental-health prohibitor, not the felon prohibitor. The case presents a fairly sympathetic plaintiff on a fairly sympathetic fact pattern, but it has lost in […]
On Monday, the Supreme Court denied cert in Torres v. United States, the first case that presented a direct Second Amendment issue since Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the Court. Torres raised the question of whether 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1)—which categorically forbids those with felony convictions from possessing firearms—can be challenged on an as-applied basis. […]
The big news out of last Friday’s conference is that the Court denied cert this morning in the Torres case. That was the first direct Second Amendment case to confront the new Court with Justice Barrett at full capacity. The issue was the same one on which she had written as a circuit judge in […]
With its order list today, the Supreme Court denied cert in the only gun case it discussed at Friday’s conference—the Yoo case. This coming Friday at conference, the Court will consider the Torres case concerning an as-applied challenge to the federal felon prohibitor. I’ve also added a new cert petition. The Firearms Policy Coalition announced […]
On Friday, the Supreme Court granted cert in Caniglia. The question presented is disarmingly simple: “Whether the ‘community caretaking’ exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement extends to the home.” But the facts on which the legal question is based are more complicated. And a handgun lies at the center of those facts. Indeed, in […]
This week’s order list contains a denial of cert in Caldara, but no action on Caniglia, which likely means the Court is going to relist the latter for another conference soon. (Relisted cases generally have a higher chance of receiving Supreme Court review.) Although it’s a Fourth Amendment case, guns are the object at issue, […]
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 […]
With Justice Barrett sworn in, the Court is operating at full strength once again. But the notation from this morning’s order list confirms that things are not yet fully settled: “Justice Barrett took no part in the consideration or decision of the motions or petitions appearing on this Order List.” There are a few cases […]
