On my, it is finally Friday. Two hours of teaching classes, then a bit of driving.

At least I’ll be driving my truck, not my wife’s car, and it isn’t a long drive. Last week was 36 hours of driving in four 9-hour days. This is just a short drive to Mordor.

There are many 2A cases petitioning for a writ of certiorari before the Supreme Court.

They were distributed for Conference. That conference happens on the 16th of may.

This is a big deal. The steps to get to this stage are long and convoluted. As an example, one of the cases seeking cert was filed on December 1, 2020. It was decided in favor of the state on March 4, 2021. It was appealed to the Fourth Circuit court, where oral arguments were never even scheduled. The court issued their opinion on September 17th, 2021 in favor of the state. It was then appealed to the Supreme Court. There it sat until August 1st when the Supreme Court granted certiorari, vacated the Fourth Circuit’s opinion and remanded it for further consideration in light of Bruen

That was nearly 2 years ago. Since that time, that case has been heard by a 3 judge merits panel for the Fourth. The merits panel never issued their opinion. Instead, the en banc court took the case and oral arguments before the entire Fourth Circuit court on March 20th, 2024.

This case, even before oral arguments were heard before the Fourth had already petitioned the Supreme Court for cert.

The week following the 16th, we will see some action on these 2A cases. There are only a few options, 3 I’m sure of and 1 I am not. 1) They can deny cert. Those cases in interlocutory state will continue litigation, with the Supreme Court hearing the case in a few years’ time. 2) They can grant cert. The case will be heard by the Supreme Court. I do not know whether it will be heard this term or next. Regardless, less than a year for the Supreme Court to issue their opinion. 3) They can leave the case in limbo, redistributing for Conference as they want. At some point, this will devolve into state 1 or 2.

Option 4 is that they can grant certiorari and then immediately issue an order. A “Grant, Vacate, and Remand.” order. I don’t know if this has ever happened. If it does happen, it will be a slap in the face to the state. (The SCOTUS would just deny cert if they would decide in favor of the People.)

The comments are open. You poor readers will have to hear about cutting gears next week, if I can locate my dividing head. Somewhere in this house is a 50 pound 10x10x17 cardboard box with a never opened dividing head.