Foster Parent Second Amendment Case Sent Back to District Court in Light of Bruen

From yesterday’s Seventh Circuit resolution in Miller v. Smith, by Judges Joel Flaum, Ilana Rovner, and Michael Brennan:

Appellants Darin and Jennifer Miller are each licensed foster house caretakers, and Jennifer Miller is licensed to function a house day care. Illinois statutes and rules prohibit how the Millers might possess and retailer firearms and ammunition of their house. The Millers problem the constitutionality of these statutes and rules. The district courtroom granted abstract judgment for the State of Illinois, and the Millers appealed.

After the Millers filed their opening transient, the Supreme Court docket determined New York State Rifle & Pistol Affiliation, Inc. v. Bruen (2022), by which the Court docket dominated that means-end scrutiny doesn’t apply within the Second Modification context. The Court docket made extra specific the constitutional normal endorsed in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), requiring courts to evaluate whether or not trendy firearms rules are in keeping with the Second Modification’s textual content and historic understanding. After Bruen was revealed, briefing continued on this case, and we heard oral argument.

We now remand for extra proceedings to obtain the total good thing about the district courtroom’s resolution making use of the “textual content, historical past, and custom” take a look at of Bruen. On remand, the district courtroom ought to enable the events to have interaction in additional discovery, together with searching for further skilled studies. The district courtroom ought to then consider any subsequent motions below Bruen‘s textual content, historical past, and custom framework. In doing so, the courtroom ought to allow briefing on and think about the interplay of Bruen and the unconstitutional situations doctrine, together with however not restricted to the employment context. See, e.g., NASA v. Nelson (2011); Engquist v. Oregon Dept. of Agri. (2008). The courtroom must also enable discovery and briefing on the delicate locations doctrine, and on every other matter that the courtroom and the events discover related in mild of Bruen.