{"id":112618,"date":"2025-10-10T13:24:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T18:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=112618"},"modified":"2025-10-10T13:24:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T18:24:17","slug":"112618","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=112618","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

NRA-Backed Plaintiffs Seek Full 3rd Circuit Review of New Jersey\u2019s Sweeping Gun Permit Restrictions<\/a><\/p>\n

Trenton, NJ \u2013 The National Rifle Association announced that plaintiffs in Siegel v. Platkin have filed a petition for rehearing en banc before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, asking the full court to overturn a panel decision that upheld large portions of New Jersey\u2019s post-Bruen carry law.<\/p>\n

The challenge\u2014brought by the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs and seven individual plaintiffs\u2014targets the state\u2019s near-total list of \u201csensitive places\u201d and its requirement that applicants for a carry permit produce written references from four \u201creputable\u201d non-relatives.<\/p>\n

Background: From Bruen to Trenton\u2019s Response
\nAfter the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s 2022 decision in NYSRPA v. Bruen affirmed the right of law-abiding citizens to carry a handgun for self-defense, Governor Phil Murphy condemned the ruling as \u201cdreadful\u201d and promised to take \u201cactions\u201d to limit its impact. The legislature quickly passed Chapter 131, a sweeping law that made it a crime to carry in 26 broad categories and 115 subcategories of locations\u2014ranging from beaches and parks to museums, bars, and even libraries.<\/p>\n

The law also imposed new hurdles for permit holders: a $50 \u201cvictims-fund\u201d tax, a $150 application fee, a $300,000 mandatory insurance requirement, and the four-reference rule that forces applicants to find non-relatives willing to vouch for their \u201creputation.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Panel Ruling
\nIn August, a divided three-judge panel struck down some parts of Chapter 131\u2014including the insurance mandate and victim-fund fee\u2014but upheld most of the \u201csensitive place\u201d bans and left the four-reference rule intact. Writing for the majority, the panel likened New Jersey\u2019s reference requirement to colonial-era \u201csurety\u201d and \u201cgoing armed\u201d laws that sought to prevent violence before it occurred.<\/p>\n

Judge David Porter dissented, warning that the \u201ccumulative burden\u201d of Chapter 131 effectively nullifies the constitutional right to carry for self-defense.<\/p>\n

The Petition for Rehearing En Banc
\nFiled October 8 by attorneys Paul Clement and Erin Murphy\u2014the same team behind Bruen\u2014the petition argues that the panel \u201cgot several of these exceptionally important issues exceptionally wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

It states that the panel \u201cblessed New Jersey\u2019s effort to designate as \u2018sensitive places\u2019 nearly everywhere that ordinary human action occurs\u201d and allowed the state to transform a \u201cfundamental constitutional right into a mere privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n

The brief points out that the panel\u2019s interpretation conflicts with both Bruen (2022) and United States v. Rahimi (2024), which require modern gun regulations to match historical analogues in both \u201cwhy and how.\u201d The lawyers contend that forcing applicants to find four character witnesses \u201cturns the presumption of liberty upside down\u201d by denying carry rights unless citizens can disprove a default assumption that they are dangerous.<\/p>\n

On the \u201csensitive places\u201d issue, the petition warns that the panel\u2019s approach \u201crenders Bruen a dead letter\u201d by allowing states to declare nearly any location gun-free\u2014including parks, beaches, casinos, healthcare facilities, and public transit\u2014contrary to the Supreme Court\u2019s statement that only \u201crelatively few\u201d such places existed historically.<\/p>\n

Why the Fight with NJ Matters
\nIf the full Third Circuit agrees to rehear the case, it could redefine how lower courts apply Bruen\u2019s historical-tradition test across multiple Second Amendment challenges now pending in the circuit. Other related cases\u2014such as Association of N.J. Rifle & Pistol Clubs v. Attorney General and Suarez v. Commissioner, Pa. State Police\u2014have been waiting for clarity on this very question.<\/p>\n

For now, New Jersey\u2019s restrictive carry zones remain in effect in most public spaces. But as the NRA emphasized in its press release, the fight is far from over: \u201cThe issues presented in this case are too important to allow the panel\u2019s flawed decision to be the last word on the constitutionality of New Jersey\u2019s outlier regime.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NRA-Backed Plaintiffs Seek Full 3rd Circuit Review of New Jersey\u2019s Sweeping Gun Permit Restrictions Trenton, NJ \u2013 The National Rifle Association announced that plaintiffs in Siegel v. Platkin have filed a petition for rehearing en banc before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, asking the full court to overturn a panel decision … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-courts","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112618"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112619,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112618\/revisions\/112619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}