The reason for the denial was the prior arrest record itself, and both Pletcher and Pepersack later testified that it was standard practice to deny applications on that basis. The Maryland Code lists several grounds for denying an application, but a prior arrest is not such a ground. Love exhausted state administrative remedies without success, and then sued in state court. The court ordered the state police to approve her application. The defendants moved to dismiss, and the district court granted the motion.
Love asserts only a substantive due process claim.
To win her case, Love must first have a property right in the approval of her application to purchase a handgun. Any significant discretion conferred upon the local agency defeats the claim of a property interest. Whether Love has a property interest under Gardner is a close call, as is whether Gardner ought to even apply outside the context of land use. The police have the power to deny the application only if it is incomplete or any information on it is false. Nonetheless, because we decide below that Love's claim fails the second prong of the substantive due process test, we will assume without deciding that Gardner does govern here and that Love has a property interest in approval of her application.