Magazine ban circuit split: Duncan and ANJRPC head to the Supreme Court

Key points: Magazine ban circuit split

• The Third Circuit, sitting en banc, held 10-5 in ANJRPC v. Platkin that New Jersey's ban on magazines holding more than 10 rounds violates the Second Amendment, in a July decision consolidated with the Cheeseman challenge to the state's AR-15 ban.
• The two circuits split on what a magazine even is: the Ninth Circuit in Duncan v. Bonta treated magazines as accessories or accoutrements sitting outside the Second Amendment, while the Third Circuit held that they facilitate a firearm's operation and are therefore arms.
• The Third Circuit also rejected the premise that constitutional protection evaporates at the 10-round line, the distinction the Ninth Circuit had drawn between magazines at or under capacity and those above it.
• Duncan is already at the Supreme Court on a cert petition that appeared to be on hold, and on August 3 the plaintiffs filed a supplemental brief arguing the circumstances have fundamentally changed — the disagreement is now a genuine circuit split, not a difference over how Bruen applies.
• The Third Circuit stayed its mandate while New Jersey seeks review, which keeps the ruling blocked for now and forces the state to carry the split to the Supreme Court itself, with its petition due October 15 — ninety days after the July 17 judgment — unless it obtains an extension from the circuit justice.
• The Court can grant both petitions and consolidate them, or hold one or both behind the semi-automatic rifle ban cases already on this term's docket, which is what California and New Jersey want because a ruling there could send the magazine cases back down to the same two circuits for another round.
• The plaintiffs' argument against waiting is geographic: while the split stands, the same Second Amendment question has opposite answers for millions of Americans depending only on which federal circuit they live in.

About this Drama and Gripe video

Magazine ban litigation now has a direct circuit split, and both sides of it are headed for the Supreme Court. The Third Circuit, sitting en banc, struck down New Jersey's 10-round limit in ANJRPC v. Platkin; the Ninth Circuit upheld California's in Duncan v. Bonta and called magazines accessories. Armed Scholar walks through what each court held, why the Third Circuit rejected the Ninth's reasoning outright, New Jersey's October 15 cert deadline, and the paths open to the Supreme Court — grant both, consolidate, or hold them behind this term's rifle ban cases.

Transcript: Magazine ban circuit