A Loss for Woollard

Regressing to the mean, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has reversed the district-court decision in what is now Woollard v. Gallagher. Ruling for the state, the court held that while Maryland’s requirement of “good and substantial reason” for a permit to carry a handgun in public does burden the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment, it is still “constitutionally permissible.” However, as Eugene Volokh notes, “a constitutional right that can be trumped in nearly all its applications, under whatever level of scrutiny, is not really a right.”

Meanwhile, we wait to see whether the U.S. Supreme Court will take up Kachalsky v. Cacace and if Illinois will petition the same for review of its loss in Moore v. Madigan.

Right-to-Carry Litigation in Summary

While the police finished murdering each other in southern California, and the President prepared “massive” proposals for the Congress, the case of Piszczatoski v. Maenza [now Drake v. Jerejian, 1/09/14] was argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. With an en banc review of the decision in Moore v. Madigan looking unlikely, a victory in Piszczatoski would deepen the circuit split created by the loss in Kachalsky v. Cacace and thus make the conflicting jurisprudence even more difficult for the U.S. Supreme Court to avoid reviewing. Here is a summary of the major right-to-carry cases for those keeping score.

Kachalsky v. Cacace	New York	Lost on appeal at USCA2.
Moore v. Madigan	Illinois	Won on appeal at USCA7.
Palmer v. D.C.	D.C.	Won at U.S. District Court.
Drake v. Jerejian	New Jersey	Lost on appeal at USCA3.
Peruta v. San Diego	California	Petitioned to U.S. Supreme Court.
Richards v. Prieto	California	Lost on rehearing at USCA9.
Woollard v. Gallagher	Maryland	Lost on appeal at USCA4.

There is a host of other right-to-arms cases that are working their way through the federal court system, but this is the vanguard litigation. A historical turning point is at hand, though some people can’t or won’t see the important civil-rights implications at work here. Few people need to carry guns, they argue, but then very few people needed to abort pregnancies … or to marry the spouses of their choice … or to ride at the front of the bus.

An Early Victory in Maryland

While judicial shenanigans continue to delay California’s early right-to-arms challenges and defeats in other cases are being appealed in New York, Colorado, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Illinois, an early and unexpected victory was announced today for the case of Woollard v. Sheridan at the U.S. District Court for Maryland. Like many of the other cases, Woollard challenged the constitutionality of discretionary permitting schemes. In this instance, however, the court ruled that Maryland’s law “impermissibly infringes the right to keep and bear arms.…”

Maryland’s attorney general has announced his intention to appeal.