From yesterday’s Seventh Circuit determination in Miller v. Smith, by Judges Joel Flaum, Ilana Rovner, and Michael Brennan:
Appellants Darin and Jennifer Miller are each licensed foster residence caretakers, and Jennifer Miller is licensed to function a house day care. Illinois statutes and rules limit how the Millers might possess and retailer firearms and ammunition of their residence. The Millers problem the constitutionality of these statutes and rules. The district court docket granted abstract judgment for the State of Illinois, and the Millers appealed.
After the Millers filed their opening temporary, the Supreme Courtroom determined New York State Rifle & Pistol Affiliation, Inc. v. Bruen (2022), by which the Courtroom dominated that means-end scrutiny doesn’t apply within the Second Modification context. The Courtroom made extra specific the constitutional commonplace 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 printed, briefing continued on this case, and we heard oral argument.
We now remand for extra proceedings to obtain the complete good thing about the district court docket’s determination making use of the “textual content, historical past, and custom” check of Bruen. On remand, the district court docket ought to enable the events to have interaction in additional discovery, together with looking for further skilled reviews. The district court docket ought to then consider any subsequent motions beneath Bruen‘s textual content, historical past, and custom framework. In doing so, the court docket ought to allow briefing on and take into account 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 court docket must also enable discovery and briefing on the delicate locations doctrine, and on some other matter that the court docket and the events discover related in mild of Bruen.
