May 5, 2014

SCOTUS Declines to Hear Another Gun Case

The High Court declined a chance to further clarify the Second Amendment.

Get yours here

Over the last half-dozen years, the Supreme Court has made great strides in spelling out the extent to which government can ban or regulate the ownership and use of handguns in both the District of Columbia v. Heller case from 2008 and the McDonald v. Chicago case in 2010. Local handgun bans were deemed too strict and in violation of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

Unfortunately, the Court declined to take up another case from the Third Circuit that would offer some needed clarification. The target of Drake v. Jerejian was a New Jersey law mandating that Garden State residents demonstrate a “justifiable need” to carry a handgun in public. While any state resident can apply for a handgun permit, as few as two out of every 10,000 are approved, with local officials given wide latitude to reject applications despite the fact that state law spells out “justifiable need” as “specific threats or previous attacks which demonstrate a special danger to the applicant’s life that cannot be avoided by means other than by issuance of a permit to carry a handgun.” Surely more than two in 10,000 would qualify under this standard, but New Jersey has the reputation of being a difficult state for Second Amendment proponents.

In any case, as Alan Gura, the attorney who argued and won both Heller and McDonald, put it, “Americans are not required to justify their need to exercise a fundamental right. If the government can force you to provide a reason to exercise your right, then it’s no longer a right.”

Counter not just to the Second Amendment itself but to other appellate courts and Supreme Court precedent, the Third Circuit ruled that New Jersey’s law “does not burden conduct within the scope of the Second Amendment.” As two examples of contrary rulings, the Seventh Circuit ruled in Moore v. Madigan that a statewide ban on carrying firearms in Illinois ran afoul of the Second Amendment, while the Ninth Circuit said in Peruta v. County of San Diego that San Diego’s “good cause” requirement for concealed carry was too big a burden on gun rights.

But the Third Circuit didn’t seem to care much for precedent or the Constitution. “At this time,” that court said in Drake, “we are not inclined to address [the original meaning of the Second Amendment] by engaging in a round of full-blown historical analysis.” In effect, the message was this: Never mind what the Constitution says, even though it’s the ultimate law of the land. Laughably, the court went on to say that because New Jersey’s law predated the Heller decision, “New Jersey’s legislators could not have known that they were burdening Second Amendment conduct.” That’s only because, like the court, legislators ignored the plain language of that Amendment.

With these lower courts reaching widely disparate conclusions, the Supreme Court should have stepped in to clarify and, ideally, overturn the onerous restrictions New Jersey places on its citizens. The Court misfired on this golden opportunity to solidify a more uniform understanding of the Second Amendment around the nation.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.