Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/20-843_7j80.pdf
Page Number: 100

Cite as:  597 U. S. ____ (2022) 

17 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

gimes as the Court assumes.  For instance, the Court rec-
ognizes in a footnote that three States (Connecticut, Dela-
ware, and Rhode Island) have statutes with discretionary 
criteria, like so-called “may issue” regimes do.  Ante, at 5, 
n. 1.  But the Court nonetheless counts them among the 43
“shall  issue”  jurisdictions  because,  it  says,  these  three 
States’ laws operate in practice more like “shall issue” re-
gimes.  Ibid.; see also Brief for American Bar Association as 
Amicus Curiae 10 (recognizing, conversely, that some “shall 
issue”  States,  e.g.,  Alabama,  Colorado,  Georgia,  Oregon,
and Virginia, still grant some degree of discretion to licens-
ing authorities).

As these three States demonstrate, the line between “may
issue”  and “shall  issue”  regimes  is  not  as  clear  cut  as  the
Court  suggests,  and  that  line  depends  at  least  in  part  on 
how  statutory  discretion  is  applied  in  practice.    Here,  be-
cause the Court strikes down New York’s law without af-
fording the State an opportunity to develop an evidentiary 
record, we do not know how much discretion licensing offic-
ers in New York have in practice or how that discretion is 
exercised, let alone how the licensing regimes in the other 
six “may issue” jurisdictions operate.

Even accepting the Court’s line between “may issue” and
“shall  issue”  regimes  and  assuming  that  its  tally  (7  “may
issue”  and  43  “shall  issue”  jurisdictions)  is  correct,  that
count does not support the Court’s implicit suggestion that
the seven “may issue” jurisdictions are somehow outliers or
anomalies.  The Court’s count captures only a snapshot in
time.  It forgets that “shall issue” licensing regimes are a 
relatively recent development.  Until the 1980s, “may issue” 
regimes predominated.  See id., at 9; R. Grossman & S. Lee, 
May  Issue  Versus  Shall  Issue:  Explaining  the  Pattern  of
Concealed-Carry Handgun Laws, 1960–2001, 26 Contemp.
Econ.  Pol’y  198,  200  (2008)  (Grossman).    As  of  1987,  16 
States  and  the  District  of  Columbia  prohibited  concealed