Third Circuit Upholds New Jersey’s Highly Restrictive Scheme for Gun Carry Licenses

The case is today’s Drake v. Filko (3d Cir. July 31, 2013), a 2-1 decision. I agree with the dissent, except that I think intermediate scrutiny isn’t the right standard to apply to such a broad restriction on the right to carry guns for self-defense.

My guess is also that there’s a decent chance that the Supreme Court will agree to hear the case (I doubt that the Third Circuit will rehear it en banc). There is something of a split between the circuits and state supreme courts that have upheld such restrictive schemes, and the Seventh Circuit, which struck down the Illinois law; and while the Illinois law was an unusually broad carry ban, I think the logic of the Seventh Circuit decision is indeed contrary to that of the other decisions. And the fact that there’s a dissent on the panel also cuts in some measure in favor of a grant of certiorari. The odds are still against cert — they almost always are — but I’d say that there’s at least a 25% chance or so of the Supreme Court agreeing to hear this case, assuming plaintiffs petition for review (and I expect they will).

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