N.Y.'s concealed carry law back in court, SCOTUS decides, Cities begin 'Good Cause'

And more bills have been signed by Hochul.

Good afternoon — it’s Wednesday and Eat Your Beans Day. 🫘

WEDNESDAY, JULY 3, 2024

TODAY’S CAPCON:

• New York’s new concealed carry law has almost made it to the U.S. Supreme Court, which struck down its old one. Read what’s happening there.

• Cities in New York are starting to implement new tenant protections under the ‘Good Cause’ eviction law.

• Hochul has signed more bills.

☀️ Tonight’s Weather: Albany: Partly cloudy, rain, high 60s. New York City: Partly cloudy, low 70s. (National Weather Service)

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🗨️ Hey CapCon readers!

We’re sending out a shorter edition today in case you’re planning to hit the road this evening for an extended holiday weekend. We’re taking Thursday off.

But don’t miss Friday’s CapCon. It’s going to be a fun one.

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(John Carl D'Annibale/Times Union)

⚖️ N.Y.’s new concealed carry gun law heads back to court, SCOTUS decides

📜 The law was passed after the state’s original concealed carry law was struck down by the Supreme Court two years ago.

After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down New York’s decades-old law on concealed carry gun permits, Gov. Kathy HOCHUL and lawmakers quickly mobilized to replace it.

Among the changes to the law was a requirement that permit applicants attend a hearing where a licensing official determines if they have “good moral character.”

• That was defined as “the essential character, temperament and judgment necessary to be entrusted with a weapon and to use it only in a manner that does not endanger oneself or others.”

But the entire reason New York’s original law was struck down is because it was too burdensome and wasn’t objective enough.

• Applicants had to show “proper cause” for why they need the license, whether it was for shooting as a hobby, self-defense or another reason.

Gun rights groups have argued that the new law doesn’t escape the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the old one because it also requires a vague judgment of character.

(New York Governor’s Office)

🧑‍⚖️ So they took those arguments to court.

Gun Owners of America sued the state to overturn the law over, among other provisions, the “good moral character” requirement and a section that barred concealed carry on private property open to the public.

• The lawsuit is written to build on Bruen, the decision that struck down the state’s first concealed carry law.

Much of the law was paused at the trial court level but then reinstated by the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, a federal appellate court.

• That court wrote that the gun rights groups were likely to succeed in their challenge to the concealed carry ban on private property open to the public.

• But the decision upheld other parts of the law that had been challenged.

That wasn’t what Gun Owners of America was looking for, so they tried to bring the case to the Supreme Court.

In their petition to have the case heard, attorneys for the group argued that New York’s new law didn’t meet the standards laid out in the Bruen case.

“Rather than following this court’s decision, New York sought to nullify it through a ‘Concealed Carry Improvement Act’ that makes it more difficult to exercise the right to bear arms in public than before Bruen was decided,” they wrote in the petition.

(Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press)

⚖️ And the Supreme Court made a decision on that petition this week.