The announcement by the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals that it has granted an en banc rehearing in cases challenging New Jersey’s prohibitive “sensitive places” concealed carry law—signed by Gov. Phil Murphy in defiance of the 2022 Supreme Court’s Bruen ruling—could translate to bad news for Garden State anti-gunners.
The court will hold an en banc hearing on February 11, 2026, but this will be one of the most closely watched cases next year. Back in September, a three-judge panel upheld a preliminary injunction issued by a District Court judge, which dealt with carrying unloaded, operable firearms in private vehicles, and carry on private property open to the public. However, the ruling upheld other tenets of the “sensitive places” law. In October, the gun rights groups filed for the en banc hearing.
The rehearing affects cases filed by the Second Amendment Foundation (Koons v. Attorney General of New Jersey) and supported by the National Rifle Association (Siegel v. Platkin).
Following the June 2022 Bruen ruling, anti-gun lawmakers in New Jersey scrambled to adopt legislation to limit the impact of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision, which struck down the unconstitutional century-old concealed carry law in neighboring New York. That ruling affected several states, which tried to restrict the ability of armed citizens to exercise their right to bear arms in many locations outside of their residences.
As noted by the NRA in a statement, New Jersey’s legislation made it “illegal to carry a firearm in 26 categories and 115 subcategories of places that together cover nearly every square inch of public space throughout the state.”
The reaction from attorney Kostas Moros, SAF Director of Legal Research and Education, was blistering.
“Lawmakers in New Jersey are doing nothing more than wasting taxpayer money while at the same time continuing to infringe on the Second Amendment rights of residents,” Moros said in a statement released to Ammoland News. “This thinly veiled attempt to make the Second Amendment a second-class right hast to be stopped, and we look forward to fighting this bad faith law in court.”
The Third Circuit announcement comes as several communities in New Jersey have mounted something of a revolt against one aspect of the state’s reactive legislation, which slapped a $200 fee on concealed carry permit applications. In a clever effort by a coalition of groups including the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action and the New Jersey Firearms Owners Syndicate, councils in at least 13 Garden State communities have voted to refund up to $150 of that fee to applicants, according to a report at Bearing Arms. CCRKBA is the sister organization of SAF.
SAF is joined in its case by the Coalition of New Jersey Firearms Owners, New Jersey Second Amendment Society, Firearms Policy Coalition, and four private citizens, Nicholas Gaudio, Jeffrey Muller, Gil Tal and Ronald Koons, for who the SAF case is named.
Those involved in the NRA-supported case are the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs and seven private citizens including Timothy Varga, Christopher Stamos, Kim Henry, Nicole Cuozzo, Joseph Deluca, Jason Cook and Aaron Siegel, for whom their case is known.
Another component of what appears to be an expanding story about gun rights and litigation is the “bigger picture” reported by The Hill Friday. According to the report, “An unusually large pileup of Second Amendment challenges has landed at the Supreme Court.” The high court has already granted certiorari in two cases, and others are waiting in the wings. The Hill article suggested the court might be on the verged of taking up other gun-related cases.
“Notably,” The Hill article said, “many of the petitions have been ‘relisted,’ meaning the justices considered them at last week’s conference but took no action. Instead, they punted and put the petitions on the list again for this week’s meeting…When the court wants to take up a case, it nearly always relists it first. Other times, the court relists a petition when it plans to turn away the case but a justice is drafting a written dissent or statement.”
Ever since the 2010 McDonald ruling, which incorporated the Second Amendment to the states via the 14th Amendment, the lower courts have had to react to gun rights cases with more than just passive interest. Then came Bruen, which has turned one major gun control strategy on its ear. An affirmative ruling by the Third Circuit would be a hammer blow to the gun prohibition crusade, which essentially is aimed at disarming law-abiding citizens in most places.
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
