The Second Amendment Law Center (2ALC) is proud to announce that we have filed another critical amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court--this time urging the Court to overturn New York’s overly restrictive carry regime. The challenged law demands that those seeking a license to carry a firearm concealed for self-defense show that they have a special need to do so--effectively banning public carry in many parts of the Empire State. The case is New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (“NYSRPA”).
Joined by our friends at the California Rifle & Pistol Association (CRPA), 2ALC argues that unconstitutional bans on protected conduct, like New York’s effective ban on public carry, are consistently upheld because abuse of the Second Amendment has become the norm in the lower courts, which routinely engage in improper Second Amendment analyses. The goal of 2ALC’s brief is thus to convince the Court to not only strike New York’s unlawful carry regime, but to adopt a meaningful test for evaluating Second Amendment challenges throughout the country. Doing so, the brief argues, will bring much needed clarity to the law for courts and legislatures alike.
2ALC’s input is particularly valuable here, given our attorneys’ work on similar carry lawsuits, including Peruta v. County of San Diego and Flanagan v. Becerra, among others. Recall, in Peruta, 2ALC’s attorneys, representing Edward Peruta and the CRPA, secured an unprecedented ruling from a panel of the Ninth Circuit that would have struck California’s “good cause” requirement. But as 2ALC’s amicus brief recounts, that decision--like essentially every other pro-gun decision in the Ninth Circuit--was reheard en banc and reversed. 2ALC argues that the Ninth Circuit’s en banc treatment of pro-gun decisions, like Peruta, is a symptom of the disease that is the lower courts’ disdain for the Second Amendment.
2LAC is hopeful that the Supreme Court will issue a decisive opinion in NYSRPA that ends the courts’ (mis)treatment of the Second Amendment as a “second-class right” once and for all. But no matter the outcome, CRPA stands ready to continue its nationwide fight against unconstitutional restrictions on your right to keep and bear arms.
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2ALC supports many cases just like this one across the country because it is important to protect the rights of the citizens against government over-reach. If you would like to support ongoing cases like these, please consider giving to build the 2ALC Litigation Fund.