Binderup v. Attorney General — civil / 2nd Amendment

The en banc Third Circuit ruled today that the federal statute criminalizing gun possession by convicted felons violates the Second Amendment as applied to the two challengers here. It’s the court’s most closely divided en banc ruling since Chief Judge McKee became chief.

On the ultimate outcome, the court split 8 to 7 in favor of the challengers.  The 8 were Ambro with Smith and Greenaway, plus Hardiman with Fisher, Chagares, Jordan, and Nygaard. The 7 were Fuentes with McKee, Vanaskie, Shwartz, Krause, Restrepo, and Roth.

No one rationale commanded a majority of the court. As Eugene Volokh (whose work is cited repeatedly in today’s opinion) ably explains in a blog post here, Hardiman’s 5 embraced a broader view of the Second Amendment, Ambro’s 3 a narrower one.

It’s a fascinating vote split. The court’s most conservative judges voted together, but the moderate and liberal votes were more surprising, which reinforces a broader trend I flagged last year.

The 8-to-7 vote also invites some interesting what-ifs. Judge Rendell went senior over a year ago, and President Obama’s nomination of Rebecca Haywood has languished for almost six months now. If Rendell or Haywood were active judges today, would the en banc court have split down the middle, leaving no precedential decision? It’s possible.

Volokh writes that if the government asks the Supreme Court to grant certiorari, “it’s likely that the court will agree to hear the case.”

Arguing counsel were Patrick Nemeroff for the government, and Alan Gura of Gura & Possessky for the challengers.