Divided D.C. Circuit Panel Refuses to Enjoin D.C. Magazine Cap
On Tuesday, in Hanson v. District of Columbia, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit divided over whether to grant an injunction against enforcement of D.C.’s magazine cap, which limits a magazine to ten bullets. Judge Millett and Senior Judge Ginsburg joined a per curiam opinion for the court. Judge Walker wrote a lengthy dissent.
Here is the introduction to the per curiam majority:
After the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), the District of Columbia revised its firearms laws to cap the capacity of firearm magazines at “10 rounds of ammunition.” D.C. Code § 7-2506.01(b). Over a decade ago, applying the then-prevailing intermediate scrutiny standard of review, we held the magazine cap did not violate the right to bear arms secured by the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which provides: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” See Heller v. District of Columbia (Heller II), 670 F.3d 1244, 1264 (D.C. Cir. 2011). Since then, the Supreme Court has rejected “means-end scrutiny in the Second Amendment context,” in favor of asking whether a challenged restriction is consistent with “the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.” N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1, 19, 24 (2022).
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