New Jersey has no respect for the right to keep and bear arms. It's bad enough that I've joked with our own John Petrolino that he should move out of the state and go somewhere where there's more freedom, like Illinois or Massachusetts.
It's only sort of a joke.
But one interesting thing I never thought I'd see is that the powers that be in the Garden State would be dumb enough to actually expect the Supreme Court to help them keep infringing on the Second Amendment.
New Jersey has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit the ruling that struck down its bans on covered semiautomatic rifles and magazines holding more than ten rounds. Its petition ties both prohibitions to the coming decision in Viramontes v. Cook County and Grant v. Higgins, making clear why the constitutional rule in those AR-15 cases matters to gun owners far beyond Illinois and Connecticut.
The October 1 petition, brought by Attorney General Jennifer Davenport and other state officials, asks the justices to hold the New Jersey case until they decide Viramontes and Grant. Then, “if appropriate,” the state wants the Court to grant review, vacate the Third Circuit’s judgment, and send the case back for reconsideration.
New Jersey lost on both rifles and magazines. It now wants another opportunity to defend both bans under whatever rule the Supreme Court announces.
New Jersey Wants Both Bans Reconsidered
The petition follows the July 17 en banc decision in the combined New Jersey litigation, including the ANJRPC and Cheeseman challenges. Ten of the Third Circuit’s 15 judges joined the judgment holding the challenged rifle and magazine prohibitions unconstitutional.
As AmmoLand reported after that ruling, the court rejected New Jersey’s attempt to exclude ordinary semiautomatic rifles from the Second Amendment. It also recognized magazines as protected arms and rejected the state’s politically selected ten-round cutoff.
Look, when 10 of 13 judges toss something, I think it's safe to say that it's well and truly tossed.
The idea that somehow the Supreme Court will decide Viramontes in such a way that it benefits New Jersey, though, is weapons-grade stupid. Hilarious, but stupid.
Viramontes is likely just going to make it harder for a state like New Jersey to hold onto anything resembling an assault weapon or magazine ban. Even if they do agree to send the case back to the Third Circuit for some reason, what do they think this particular Supreme Court is going to say that would then be twisted by the 10 judges who already struck it down once to suddenly allow it?
I honestly want to know.
Mostly, I want to know because I'm fascinated by serious mental illness and would love to see how far self-delusion can go, and this promises to be a banger for anyone with similar interests.
Honestly, anyone who is so far gone as to think this will work out well for New Jersey is someone who really deserves to either be committed or mocked, and since Davenport isn't committed, I'm going with mockery.
At the end of the day, we may not know what Viramontes will say specifically, but it's unlikely that this particular Court that decided Bruen and Wolford will suddenly decide, "Nah, we were only joking. Gun control is totally cool. Just do whatever you want because the Constitution is made up and the rules don't matter."
Seriously.
So we'll be watching to see what happens with this one, but I personally think it's dead in the water. Even if it's set back to the circuit court, it'll be after a ruling that makes it clear that, if anything, the Third Circuit didn't go far enough or hard enough in slapping down New Jersey.
