Preliminary injunction against NJ ban on peaceable carry
Today the U.S. District Court for New Jersey issued a very thorough 230-page preliminary injunction against much of the New Jersey legislature’s Bruen response bill. As in the years after Brown v. Board of Education, some state legislatures under the sway of anti-civil rights lobbies have engaged in massive resistance to Bruen.
A similar law in New York was preliminarily enjoined by several district courts, but the injunctions were stayed in a Second Circuit opinion that declined to provide any reasoning. Second Circuit oral argument was held in March.
Background: The consolidated New Jersey cases are Koons v. Platkin, no. 22-7474 and Siegel v. Platkin, no. 22-7463. Lead attorneys were David Jensen in Koons and Daniel Schmutter in Siegel. The Koons plaintiffs included the Second Amendment Foundation and the Firearms Policy Coalition, while the Siegel plaintiffs included the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs.
The preliminary injunction was issued by Chief Judge Renee Marie Bumb, who was nominated by President George W. Bush and unanimously confirmed by the Senate in 2006. Previously, Judge Bumb served for 15 years as an Assistant United States Attorney. In January, Judge Bumb had issued a detailed Temporary Restraining Order. The PI decision comes after extensive briefing by the parties, and the New Jersey Attorney General brief shows the state of the art for massive resistance.
This post will address 1. The new carry licensing rules in New Jersey. 2. The new bans on licensed carry in many locations. 3. Some additional issues.
The opinion notes the New Jersey Attorney General’s implicit contempt for its duty to justify infringements on civil rights:
Remarkably, despite numerous opportunities afforded by this Court to hold evidentiary
hearings involving the presentation of evidence, the State called no witnesses. And despite assurances by the State that it would present sufficient historical evidence as required by Bruen to support each aspect of the new legislation, the State failed to do so.
The New Jersey legislature’s contempt for the rule of law was obvious:
The legislative record reveals the Legislature paid little to no mind to Bruen and the law-abiding New Jerseyans’ right to bear arms in public for self-defense. . . . When Assemblymen Brian Bergen asked the law’s primary sponsor, Assemblymen Joseph Danielsen, if he had read Bruen, Danielsen responded “me reading the
Court’s decision is not part of the bill.” . . . And when pressed by Bergen on whether the Founding Founders limited the Second Amendment to “town squares,” “taverns,” “public parks,” and “beaches,” Danielsen refused to answer the question, telling Bergen to “stay on the bill.” . . . Throughout his questioning with Bergen, Danielsen evaded questions on the historical support for the new law. At another hearing, when Assemblywomen Victoria Flynn simply asked Danielsen where law-abiding citizens could conceal carry, Danielsen’s response included such statements as: “reasonable persons exercising common sense would have an expectation that guns are not being brought in except by law enforcement . . . you are not going to mindlessly put a loaded firearm on your person and just leave the house.”. . .
This has left the Court to do what the Legislature had said it had done, but clearly did not. The Court has conducted its own exhaustive research into this Nation’s history and tradition of regulating firearms that Bruen mandates.
. . .
[W]hat the State and the Legislature-Intervenors ignore, and what their empirical evidence fails to address, is that this legislation is aimed primarily—not at those who unlawfully possess firearms—but at law-abiding, responsible citizens who satisfy detailed background and training requirements and whom the State seeks to prevent from carrying a firearm in public for self-defense.
Simply owning a firearm in New Jersey requires a lengthy and intensive background check. To acquire a firearm, an individual must have been issued a Firearms Identification Card, which requires a fingerprint background check and safety training. On top of that, every single handgun acquisition requires a separate permit to purchase. Permits are issued by local police departments. A FID card is valid until revoked, whereas a carry permit lasts only two years.
Carry license requirements
Rejection of applic
Article from Reason.com
