Second Amendment, religious liberty cases await now-full Supreme Court
WASHINGTON — The swearing-in of Justice Neil M. Gorsuch on Monday restores the Supreme Court to full strength for the first time in nearly 14 months and sets the stage for further conservative victories that could start accumulating quickly.
A Second Amendment challenge out of California, a religious liberty test from Missouri and a voter ID law from North Carolina now await Gorsuch and his eight colleagues on the high court. Following private and public swearing-in ceremonies Monday morning, Gorsuch began digging into the first of the cases that could consume him for decades to come.
“I am humbled by the trust placed in me today,” Gorsuch said in the White House Rose Garden. “I will never forget that to whom much is given, much will be expected.”
Gorsuch’s impact could become apparent as early as Thursday, when justices meet for their near-weekly private conference to consider petitions. If at least four justices agree, a case can be accepted and added, at this point in the year, to the court’s oral argument docket for the term that starts next October.
Notably, a California resident named Edward Peruta is challenging a denial of his request for a concealed-carry permit that would enable him to take a hidden handgun outside of his home. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department limits the concealed-carry permits to those who can show they have specific, particular needs for self-defense.
“The whole point of the sheriff’s policy is to confine concealed-carry licenses to a very narrow subset of lawabiding residents,” Peruta’s attorneys wrote. “And because California law prohibits openly carrying a handgun outside the home, the result is that the typical law-abiding resident cannot bear a handgun for self-defense outside the home at all.”