Third Circuit Panel Dismisses Lawsuit Against New Jersey Gun Liability Law

A three-judge panel for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit dismissed a lawsuit against New Jersey’s gun liability law Thursday.

The suit was brought by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) and centers on New Jersey’s public nuisance law, which:

[E]mpowers the state’s Attorney General—and only the Attorney General—to sue gun-industry members whose “unlawful … or unreasonable” conduct “contribute[s] to a public nuisance in [New Jersey] through the sale, manufacturing, distribution, importing, or marketing of a gun-related product.”

The panel explained the reasoning behind its decision is that the New Jersey law has yet to be used as a basis for suit.

The three judges — George W. Bush appointee Thomas M. Hardiman, Donald Trump appointee Stephanos Bibas, and Joe Biden appointee Arianna Freeman — found the NSSF suit premature.

The panel explained:

Federal courts are not forecasters. The Constitution limits our jurisdiction to disputes that have ripened fully. We may not prejudge hypothetical cases or offer legal advice. Instead, parties must first be injured before coming to us for redress. Only then do we react. When constitutional rights are at stake, we accelerate that timeline—but only slightly. We may hear a case before a person’s rights are violated only if the threat is imminent.

It added, “[NSSF] challenges a new state gun law as violating its members’ constitutional rights. But we see little evidence that enforcement is looming. Because the Foundation has jumped the gun, its challenge must be dismissed.”

The case reached the Third Circuit after the United States District Court in the District Court of New Jersey decided in NSSF’s favor. The case is now remanded.

The case is NSSF v. Platkin, No. 23-1214, in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010, a speaker at the 2023 Western Conservative Summit, and he holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.