New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport has asked the Supreme Court to revive bans a federal appeals court already struck down. On October 1, 2026, she filed a petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review of the Third Circuit’s decision invalidating the state’s assault-rifle and large-capacity magazine prohibitions. The filing is a direct bid to put those restrictions back in force, including the AR-15 ban New Jersey lost in the court of appeals.
The Third Circuit issued that ruling on July 17, 2026, in case No. 24-2415. The decision struck down New Jersey’s assault-rifle ban and its large-capacity magazine ban. Those are the laws Davenport now wants the justices to restore. The state lost in the court of appeals and chose not to stand down.
Davenport’s petition asks the Court to hold those laws pending related cases in Viramontes and Grant. New Jersey wants the justices to treat its assault-rifle and large-capacity magazine bans as bound up with that pending litigation. The attorney general is asking the Supreme Court to keep those statutes before the Court while Viramontes and Grant proceed.
That is a statute-first strategy. New Jersey’s answer to a Third Circuit loss is another round of litigation aimed at reviving AR-15 and magazine bans the appeals court already rejected. The Constitution does not wait on a certiorari petition. The Second Amendment binds New Jersey whether or not the attorney general likes the judgment in No. 24-2415.
Officials in Trenton swore an oath to the Constitution, not to a ban list. Davenport’s October 1 filing asks the Supreme Court to second-guess a circuit decision that struck down assault-rifle and large-capacity magazine restrictions. The state can petition. It cannot convert a lost appeals-court fight into a substitute for the right to keep and bear arms.
What happens next sits with the justices. They will decide whether to grant the petition for certiorari, whether to take up the Third Circuit’s July 17 ruling, and whether to hold New Jersey’s laws pending Viramontes and Grant. The state’s request does not rewrite the Third Circuit’s decision. That court struck the bans down.
The right does not shrink because a state attorney general files a petition. New Jersey asked the Supreme Court to revive AR-15 and magazine bans after the Third Circuit struck them down. The oath still runs to the Constitution. Statutes that cannot survive that test do not become lawful again by being sent to Washington.
References
- https://dailycaller.com/2026/10/02/blue-state-appeals-ruling-that-shot-down-semi-auto-gun-ban/
- https://assets.nationbuilder.com/firearmspolicycoalition/pages/6504/attachments/original/1790955853/2026.10.01_Cert_Petition.pdf
- https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca3/24-2415/24-2415-2026-07-17.html
- https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca3.123103/gov.uscourts.ca3.123103.125.0.pdf