On September 9, 2024, the Massachusetts Supreme Court held oral arguments in the cases of Commonwealth v Donnell. Another, similar case where a New Hampshire citizen worked in Massachusetts, Marquis, has been consolidated with the Donnell case. Both cases involve New Hampshire citizens who had firearms in their automobile in Massachusetts
The case is about whether Massachusetts can impose undue burdens on people from out of state who can legally carry weapons in their home state. It appears the court has received all the arguments in this case and will now consider them and file an opinion and order. It is not known the process will take . In the case of Commonwealth v Canjura, the Massachusetts Supreme Court heard oral arguments on December 4, 2023, and issued their decision on August 27, 2024, a period of nine months. If the same time is used for the Donnell case, we may see an opinion issued in June of 2025. The decision would straddle the presidential election.
Commonwealth v Canjura was decided by a unanimous Massachusetts Supreme Court, which did a good job of following the guidance issued by the US Supreme Court in the Heller, McDonald, Caetano, and Bruen decisions. All Five of the Massachusetts Supreme Court Justices who sat on the Canjura case are sitting on the Donnell case. One more Supreme Court Justice has been added to the Donnell case, Justice Gabriella Wolohojian, appointed by Governor Healy in April of 2024.
A number of high powered amicus briefs have been filed in this case, as considered in a previous AmmoLand article. Additional amicus briefs were filed from August 19 to September 9 by the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the CATO institute, the Attorney General of the State of New Hampshire, and the New Hampshire Firearms Coallition.
The oral arguments last an hour and six minutes. They were originally scheduled for 15 minutes for each side. In this correspondent's opinion, all the attorneys did well with what they had. The questions asked by the Supreme Court justices were skilled and of high caliber. Here are a few of the issues considered:
Does state power to make criminal laws override the fundamental right to keep and bear arms?
Can a state require time to vet people to see if they are dangerous, thus temporarily disarming them?
Can a state treat non-residents substantially different from residents when it comes to fundamental constitutional rights?
Will upholding the lower court decision to invalidate the non-resident part of Massachusetts law inevitably lead to nationwide reciprocity of carry permits, at the minimum, and perhaps, Constitutional Carry for all states?
Can states ban "assault weapons" or are they protected under the Second Amendment?
Forecasting what a court will do, based on oral arguments is risky business. It appeared to this correspondent the Justices were a bit tougher on the attorney representing the state, than on those representing Donnell and Marquis. This may be because the State arguments were significantly weaker.
Justice Wolohojian, appointed by Governor Healy, gave a good account of herself with well thought out questions.
This correspondent expected to see more play on the Supreme Court's ban on "means-ends" arguments for the Second Amendment. The justices repeatedly mentioned the Second Amendment is a fundamental constitutionally protected right. The entire question of reciprocity appears to be a "means-ends" argument.
It is unlikely a decision will be published on this case until long after the November presidential election.
©2024 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
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