Platkin files emergency motion to stay ruling that blocked concealed carry law

Following last week’s federal court ruling that blocked much of New Jersey’s new concealed carry law, New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin filed an emergency motion today requesting an immediate stay of the ruling pending appeal.

“A stay is urgently needed,” Platkin wrote in the motion submitted to the Third Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals. “The preliminary injunction prevents the State from enforcing its democratically-enacted laws. It bars the State from protecting residents and law enforcement from gun violence in sensitive places. It empowers individuals to carry firearms onto their neighbors’ porches and into local businesses without seeking the owners’ consent. And it risks significant confusion on the ground.”

The motion details the ways that U.S. District Court Judge Renée Marie Bumb’s ruling could harm New Jerseyans and their rights, and also cites recent precedent: a Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision last December that allowed New York State to continue enforcing similar firearm restrictions.

“At the very least, [plaintiffs] have established no harms sufficient to justify exposing nine million residents to a heightened risk of gun violence on their own property and in sensitive places,” Platkin wrote. “As the Second Circuit found in near-identical challenges to near-identical sensitive places and private-property provisions, a stay is warranted.”

New Jersey’s law – which restricts weapons in a wide array of locations and requires firearm owners to obtain liability insurance, among other things – passed the state legislature late last year. The impetus for the regulations was the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in NYSRPA v. Bruen, which determined that “justifiable need” requirements for concealed carry licenses were unconstitutional, thus voiding a huge component of New Jersey’s gun laws.

Shortly after Gov. Phil Murphy signed the new restrictions into law, however, Bumb temporarily blocked many of the law’s provisions, a ruling that she expanded on last week. Platkin immediately said he would appeal, with today’s emergency motion representing the first step in that process.