New Jersey vs. the Supreme Court on Gun Rights
Gov. Murphy signs a law that defies this year’s ruling in Bruen.
From Today's WSJ.
"Politicians these days don’t have the respect they once did for the Bill of Rights, and some are defying courts that enforce those rights. That’s the story in New Jersey, where last week Gov. Phil Murphy signed a new law that makes getting a gun carry permit more difficult and expensive and sharply limits the public places where a firearm can be carried.
This is a direct challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling in
N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Assn. v. Bruen. That decision barred New York’s restrictive regime for gun-carry permits, holding that the right to carry a firearm extends outside a person’s home and is fundamental to the Second Amendment.
Gov. Murphy concedes he’s bound by
Bruen though he disagrees with it. But the new law is transparently an exercise in bad faith to complicate the right to bear arms. The law introduces new hassles to gun rights, such as raising the cost of carry permits and requiring liability insurance. But the most egregious provision bans guns in numerous “sensitive places.”
Prohibited areas include courthouses, airports, places where alcohol is served, schools, nursing homes, amusement parks, casinos, public parks, public libraries and museums, and much more. It’s similar to a recent New York law that bans guns in parks, Times Square and subways. Criminals—who don’t obey gun laws—would know they have nothing to fear from someone trying to defend himself in these gun-free zones.
The Court in
Bruen acknowledged the historical reality that guns were sometimes banned in specific locations. But the Justices also said that “expanding the category of ‘sensitive places’ simply to all places of public congregation that are not isolated from law enforcement defines the category of ‘sensitive places’ far too broadly.”
Gov. Murphy knows this. He nonetheless wants to force gun owners to have to sue to vindicate their rights, which is expensive and can take years. While serving in the Clinton Administration in 2000, Andrew Cuomo called this strategy “death by a thousand cuts” as a warning to gun makers to settle a lawsuit brought by 28 cities and counties. Gov. Murphy’s legal defiance to eviscerate an enumerated constitutional right is no more attractive."