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The Resurrection of the Second Amendment at the New Roberts Court

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The Resurrection of the Second Amendment at the New Roberts Court Marquette Law Review Volume 102 Article 3 Issue 2 Winter 2018 The exN t Big Gun Case: The Resurrection of the Second Amendment at the New Roberts Court Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulr Repository Citation The Next Big Gun Case: The Resurrection of the Second Amendment at the New Roberts Court, 102 Marq. L. Rev. 309 (2018). Available at: https://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulr/vol102/iss2/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Marquette Law Review by an authorized editor of Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 40986 mqt_102-2 Sheet No. 5 Side A 01/29/2019 13:38:24 CIOCCHETTI - MULR VOL. 102, NO.2(DO NOT DELETE) 1/17/2019 8:29 PM MARQUETTE LAW REVIEW Volume 102 Winter 2018 Number 2 THE NEXT BIG GUN CASE: THE RESURRECTION OF THE SECOND AMENDMENT AT THE NEW ROBERTS COURT COREY A. CIOCCHETTI* The Supreme Court has denied certiorari in around one hundred Second Amendment cases since deciding District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008. Since then, the Justices have issued only one bona fide firearms decision, which brought state and local laws within the Second Amendment’s scope. At the same time, the right to keep and bear arms continues to loom in thousands of lawsuits either recently decided or docketed in the lower courts. The facts of these cases stray from Heller’s now-blackletter rule that handguns may be kept and used in the home for self-defense. And so, the lack of applicable guidance places lawmakers and judges in a predicament. Unsure of how to proceed, legislatures pass firearms laws which are both 40986 mqt_102-2 Sheet No. 5 Side A 01/29/2019 13:38:24 over- and under-inclusive. These are immediately challenged in court, often before enactment. Presiding judges from all twelve relevant circuit courts express their confusion on how to proceed in written opinions. Some statements are not-so-subtle prods at the Justices to show more courage and accept the next big gun case. The irony is that the Roberts Court typically acts courageously. Over the past five years, the Justices have decided many tough cases revolving around six of the ten vaguely written Bill of Rights guarantees and plenty more involving the equally ambiguous Fourteenth Amendment. Of the four neglected provisions—the Second, Third, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments—the latter three are rarely invoked in a petition for certiorari. The Second Amendment, on the only hand, often plays a starring role. * Assistant Professor of Business Ethics and Legal Studies, Daniels College of Business, University of Denver, J.D. Duke University School of Law, M.A. University of Denver. Please feel free to contact Professor Ciocchetti with questions or comments at [email protected]. C M Y K 40986 mqt_102-2 Sheet No. 5 Side B 01/29/2019 13:38:24 CIOCCHETTI - MULR VOL. 102, NO.2(DO NOT DELETE) 1/17/2019 8:29 PM 310 MARQUETTE LAW REVIEW [102:309 Therefore, the Court should show similar courage and further elaborate on Heller’s meaning. This Article formulates a framework which demonstrates that the Court should expeditiously grant certiorari when four factors coalesce: (1) lawmakers are hamstrung in deciphering constitutional boundaries; (2) echoes of confusion ripple through lower courts lacking definitive guidance; (3) an appropriate case places the issue squarely on the table; and (4) the Supreme Court is the best/only authoritative referee able to settle the matter. Most Second Amendment cases easily surmount this high hurdle. The Article identifies two areas in greatest need of clarity: prohibitions or restrictions on assault weapons/large capacity magazines and public carry. Each continue to produce cases that are ripe for the Court’s consideration. When the newly configured Roberts Court takes its next big gun case, it should come from these areas of unsettled law. In the end, it is past time for the Supreme Court to fulfill its promise in Heller to further elaborate on the Second Amendment’s individual right to keep and bear arms. I. INTRODUCTION:RESURRECTION OF SECOND AMENDMENT CANON ......... 311 II. THE COURAGE TO INTERPRET AMERICAS PITHY CONSTITUTION ........... 319 A. The Courage of the Roberts Court to Solve Constitutional Riddles .................................................................................................... 323 B. The HEAR Framework: Revealing Critical Cases Ripe for the ................................................................. 334 C. Where Courage Fails the Roberts Court: The Neglected Second Amendment ................................................................................ 341 III. HELLERS PROMISE:WHY THE NEW ROBERTS COURT SHOULD (AND LIKELY WILL)SOON DECIDE A MEANINGFUL SECOND AMENDMENT 40986 mqt_102-2 Sheet No. 5 Side B 01/29/2019 13:38:24 CASE ................................................................................................... 343 A. A Looming Second Amendment Requires Legislators to Guess & See .............................................................................................. 345 1. Firearms Regulations & Their Justifications .......................... 347 2. The Inevitable Lawsuits .......................................................... 349 B. Judges Are Perplexed by Heller As Applied to Their Cases......... 350 1. The Motions for Dismissal and Summary Judgment .............. 350 C. HellerBranch of Government to Make This Call ........................................................................... 362 D. Conclusions: The HEAR Factors Call for a Firearms Case at the Court ........................................................................................... 365 IV. TWO FIREARMS TOPICS OVERLY RIPE FOR SUPREME COURT ADJUDICATION ................................................................................... 367 A. Tidbits from Heller ....................................................................... 368 B. Assault Rifle & Large Capacity Magazine Bans ........................... 371 C M Y K 40986 mqt_102-2 Sheet No. 6 Side A 01/29/2019 13:38:24 CIOCCHETTI - MULR VOL. 102, NO.2(DO NOT DELETE) 1/17/2019 8:29 PM 2018] THE NEXT BIG GUN CASE 311 1. The Fight Moves to the States: The Typical State/Local Assault Weapons Ban ........................................................................ 373 2. Let the Lawsuits Begin ........................................................... 374 3. Public Carry Regulations ........................................................ 379 V. CONCLUSIONS:THE NEXT BIG GUN CASE IS COMING! ........................... 385 I. INTRODUCTION:RESURRECTION OF SECOND AMENDMENT CANON [T]he scope of the individual right that the Second Amendment protects is crying out for resolution. [T] so long that the Court will be able to bear the legal incongruity and 1 -- ILYA SHAPIRO,CATO INSTITUTE /APRIL 15, 2013 The Supreme Court has denied certiorari in around one hundred Second Amendment cases since deciding District of Columbia v. Heller2 in 2008.3 Its only other bona fide firearms case since the 1930s, McDonald v. City of Chicago,4 applied Heller right to use handguns for self-defense to state and local firearms laws.5 McDonald was a groundbreaking case to be sure. But, beyond reiterating Hellers limited guidance, the controversial decision contributed little to the substantive interpretation of the Second Amendment.6 The bottom line is that the Court has issued only two major Second Amendment 1.Ilya Shapiro, Supreme Court Ducks Key Second Amendment Issue—for Now, CATO INST.: CATO AT LIBERTY (Apr. 15, 2013, 11:21 AM), https://www.cato.org/blog/supreme-court-ducks-key- second-amendment-issue-now [https://perma.cc/ER5T-6RFL]. 2. 554 U.S. 570 (2008). 40986 mqt_102-2 Sheet No. 6 Side A 01/29/2019 13:38:24 3.See Post-Heller Litigation Summary, GIFFORDS L. CTR. TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE (Dec. 2017), http://lawcenter.giffords.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/PHLS-December-17-Update- Final.pdf [https://perma.cc/UYN4-FZ64] (conducting research to find that the Supreme Court denied eighty-two such cases as of December 2017). Since that time, more Second Amendment cases, some notable, met the same fate. See, e.g., Teixeira v. County of Alameda, 873 F.3d 670 (9th Cir. 2017) (en banc), cert denied sub nom. Teixeira v. Alameda County, 138 S. Ct. 1988 (2018) (asking whether the Second Amendment provides standalone rights to firearms dealers); Silvester v. Harris, 843 F.3d 816 (2016), cert. denied sub nom. Silvester v. Becerra, 138 S. Ct. 945 (2018) (asking whether Californias ten-day waiting period for gun purchases violates the Second Amendment). 4. 561 U.S. 742 (2010). 5.See id. at 791. 6.See, e.g., Adam Liptak, Justices Extend Firearm Rights in 5-to-4 Ruling,N.Y.TIMES (June 28, 2010), https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/us/29scotus.html [https://perma.cc/L775-WJ6F] (stating that the ruling is an enormous symbolic victory for supporters of gun rights, but its short-term practical effect is unclear. As in the Heller decision, the justices left for another day just what kinds of gun control laws can be reconciled with Second Amendment protection. The majority said little more than that there is a right to keep handguns in the home for self-defense.). C M Y K 40986 mqt_102-2 Sheet No. 6 Side B 01/29/2019 13:38:24 CIOCCHETTI - MULR VOL. 102, NO.2(DO NOT DELETE) 1/17/2019 8:29 PM 312 MARQUETTE LAW REVIEW [102:309 decisions over the past eighty years.7 Few constitutional guarantees
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