N.Y. State Firearms Assn v. James
Split Score
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Case Summary
Disposition
Affirmed
The Second Circuit affirmed the district court’s refusal to preliminarily enjoin New York’s Concealed Carry Improvement Act provisions that require ammunition sellers to run background checks, pay a $2.50 per-check fee, and register with the State Police. The court held that these requirements do not meaningfully constrain the plaintiffs’ ability to keep and bear arms at step one of the Bruen framework and therefore are unlikely to violate the Second Amendment.
Circuit Split Identified
Legal Issue
Whether state-imposed ammunition background-check regimes that include modest fees and short delays facially violate the Second Amendment because they ‘meaningfully constrain’ the right to keep and bear arms at Bruen step one.
Circuit Positions
Modest fees and short delays for ammunition background checks do NOT meaningfully constrain the Second Amendment right; law is presumptively valid at Bruen step one.
Ammunition background-check regimes with fees/delays facially violate the Second Amendment because they meaningfully constrain the right in all applications.
Conflict Summary
The Second, Fourth, and Fifth Circuits hold that background-check systems with minimal fees and brief processing times do not meaningfully burden the right to acquire arms and therefore survive the Bruen step-one inquiry, while the Ninth Circuit has held that any such statewide ammunition background-check scheme, with its attendant fees and delays, facially infringes the Second Amendment in all applications.