NJ wants semiautomatic rifle ban to remain in effect as it seeks Supreme Court review

New Jersey asked the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals to pause an order striking the state’s ban on certain semiautomatic weapons while the state seeks to bring the case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a court filing entered Friday, attorneys for the state argued the appeals court has routinely stayed orders while litigants sought certification before the highest court in the land and pointed to contrary rulings from six other circuit courts that upheld similar bans.

“That nearly thirty appellate judges across the ideological spectrum agree with the State’s arguments suggests at least a ‘reasonable possibility’ that five Justices would ultimately do the same,” New Jersey attorneys said in the filing.

The appeals court’s ruling also struck down New Jersey’s ban on high-capacity magazines.

In Friday’s filing, the state cited a three-pronged test to back its request.

New Jersey argued courts have historically allowed struck laws to persist if there was a reasonable probability that the Supreme Court would take up the case, that five justices would reverse the lower court’s ruling, and that a litigant would face irreparable harm if a law was struck.

The Supreme Court has already taken up Viramontes v. Cook County, an Illinois case that asks whether the Second and 14th Amendment rights permit ownership of AR-15s and similar semiautomatic rifles, so it would likely take up New Jersey’s case, the state argued.

Three justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch — voted to take up a case challenging magazine capacity limits last year.

Rulings from the 1st, 2nd, 7th, 9th, and D.C. circuit courts have upheld semiautomatic weapon bans or magazine capacity limits, and New Jersey argued the justices could agree with those decisions rather than the one issued by the 3rd Circuit.

And they said New Jersey would be harmed if the law were to lapse, both because states always face irreparable harm when a court blocks a law and because even a temporary break to the nearly 40-year-old ban would have permanent consequences by allowing the sale of firearms that could later be declared illegal again.

“Law enforcement would not know who now possesses such weapons in New Jersey, and thousands of individuals may be subject to criminal exposure for continuing to possess weaponry they understood to be lawful when initially purchased,” New Jersey’s attorneys wrote.

A state exhibit showed at least three instances where New Jersey arms dealers had sold high-capacity magazines following the ruling.

“Absent a stay of the mandate, thousands (or more) of such sales could take place in the State, a bell state and local law enforcement could not soon un-ring,” the state said.

New Jersey’s so-called assault weapons ban dates to 1990 and bars ownership of 66 listed rifles and shotguns and similar firearms plus those with certain characteristics, like a pistol grip, a threaded barrel meant to accept muzzle devices like flash hiders and suppressors, or folding or telescoping stocks.

Its high-capacity magazine ban bars any magazine that can hold more than ten rounds of ammunition.

The National Rifle Association, which funded and argued the case, and the Association of New Jersey Pistol and Rifle Clubs, which brought it, did not immediately return a request for comment.

Gun owners have also challenged a more recent New Jersey law that bars firearms in an array of locations. A divided three-judge 3rd Circuit panel upheld most of the law but gun owners want the court’s full panel of judges to rule on their challenge.