Court Opinion

ID: 9556605
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-17 21:01:03.069382+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:09:13.432675
License: Public Domain

PRECEDENTIAL

       UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
            FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
                _______________

                     No. 23-1214
                   _______________

   NATIONAL SHOOTING SPORTS FOUNDATION

                           v.

      ATTORNEY GENERAL OF NEW JERSEY,
                              Appellant
              _______________

     On Appeal from the United States District Court
              for the District of New Jersey
                (D.C. No. 3:22-cv-06646)
      District Judge: Honorable Zahid N. Quraishi
                    _______________

                  Argued: June 7, 2023

Before: HARDIMAN, BIBAS, and FREEMAN, Circuit Judges

                (Filed: August 17, 2023)

Timothy Sheehan
Michael L. Zuckerman         [ARGUED]
OFFICE OF ATTORNEY GENERAL OF NEW JERSEY
25 Market Street
Richard J. Hughes Justice Complex
Box 080
Trenton, NJ 08625
   Counsel for Appellant

Eric A. Tirschwell
EVERYTOWN LAW
450 Lexington Avenue
P.O. Box 4148
New York, NY 10017
   Counsel for Amici Everytown for Gun Safety Support
   Fund, Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, and
   Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence

Sarah A. Hunger
OFFICE OF ATTORNEY GENERAL OF ILLINOIS
100 W. Randolph Street
12th Floor
Chicago, IL 60601
   Counsel for Amici Illinois, California, Connecticut,
   Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawai’i, Maryland, Mas-
   sachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York,
   Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washing-
   ton, and Wisconsin

Timothy M. Haggerty
Rupita Chakraborty
Alexandra G. Elenowitz-Hess
FRIEDMAN KAPLAN SEILER ADELMAN & ROBBINS
7 Times Square
28th Floor
New York, NY 10036
   Counsel for Amicus Legal Scholars

                            2
James P. Davy
ALL RISE LAW
P.O. Box 15216
Philadelphia, PA 19125
   Counsel for Amicus Ryan Busse

Gretchen A. Pickering
CAPE MAY COUNTY OFFICE OF PROSECUTOR
4 Moore Road
DN-110
Cape May Court House, NJ 08210
   Counsel for Amicus County Prosecutor’s Association of
   New Jersey

Paul D. Clement
Erin E. Murphy         [ARGUED]
CLEMENT & MURPHY
706 Duke Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
   Counsel for Appellee

Joshua N. Turner
OFFICE OF ATTORNEY GENERAL OF IDAHO
514 W. Jefferson Street
P.O. Box 83720
Boise, ID 83720
   Counsel for Amici Idaho, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas,
   Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi,
   Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina,
   South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, and Wyoming

                            3
                      _______________

                 OPINION OF THE COURT
                    _______________

BIBAS, Circuit Judge.
    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, par-
ties 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.
    The National Shooting Sports Foundation challenges a new
state gun law as violating its members’ constitutional rights.
But we see little evidence that enforcement is looming. Be-
cause the Foundation has jumped the gun, its challenge must
be dismissed.
 I. NEW JERSEY’S LAW AND THE FOUNDATION’S LAWSUIT
    Last year, New Jersey passed a law to combat “bad actors
in the gun industry.” N.J. Stat. § 2C:58-33(a). The Law empow-
ers the state’s Attorney General—and only the Attorney Gen-
eral—to sue gun-industry members whose “unlawful … or un-
reasonable” conduct “contribute[s] to a public nuisance in
[New Jersey] through the sale, manufacturing, distribution, im-
porting, or marketing of a gun-related product.” § 2C:58-
35(a)(1). It also requires industry members to “establish, im-
plement, and enforce reasonable controls” on these activities.

                               4
§ 2C:58-35(a)(2). The Attorney General has not yet tried to en-
force the Law against anyone.
     Four months after the Law was passed, the Foundation filed
this pre-enforcement lawsuit. The Foundation is a trade group
of gun makers, retailers, and other industry members. It claims
that the Law is preempted by a federal statute (the Protection
of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 7901–7903)
and violates due process, the First and Second Amendments,
and the dormant Commerce Clause. Its complaint asserts that
the “interests of its members … are impaired by the threat of
sweeping liability under” the Law. App. 27 ¶ 10. But it says
little more about those members, their interests, or their plans.
    Soon after filing its complaint, the Foundation moved for a
preliminary injunction. With that motion, the Foundation at-
tached two declarations: one from Beretta’s general counsel
and one from SIG Sauer’s chief legal officer. Both men de-
clared that those gunmakers “will continually be at risk of liti-
gation and potential liability unless [they] cease[ ] doing busi-
ness.” App. 93, 96. But they gave no factual detail.
   Granting the motion, the District Court enjoined the Attor-
ney General from enforcing any part of the Law against any-
one. It held that the Foundation had standing and that the Law
was preempted, but it did not reach the Foundation’s other ar-
guments. We granted a partial stay pending appeal.
   The District Court had jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1331,
and we have jurisdiction under § 1292(a)(1). We review the
court’s subject-matter jurisdiction de novo. Great W. Mining
& Min. Co. v. Fox Rothschild LLP, 615 F.3d 159, 163 (3d Cir.
2010).

                               5
     II. THE FOUNDATION HAS NOT SHOWN STANDING
   A. The Foundation must show a case or controversy
    Before reaching the merits, we must first ensure that this
case presents a dispute suitable for courts to resolve. See Trump
v. New York, 141 S. Ct. 530, 535 (2020) (per curiam). Arti-
cle III of the Constitution limits the judicial power to “Cases”
and “Controversies.” That limit includes two requirements.
    First, the plaintiff needs standing. The Foundation must
“show an injury in fact caused by the defendant and redressable
by a court order.” United States v. Texas, 143 S. Ct. 1964, 1970
(2023). An injury in fact, in turn, must be “concrete, particu-
larized, and imminent rather than conjectural or hypothetical.”
Trump, 141 S. Ct. at 535 (internal quotation marks omitted).
To be “imminent,” either a threat of injury must be “certainly
impending,” or there must at least be “a substantial risk that the
harm will occur.” Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus, 573 U.S.
149, 158 (2014) (internal quotation marks omitted).
    Second, and closely related, the case must be ripe. It must
not “depend[ ] on contingent future events that may not occur
as anticipated, or indeed may not occur at all.” Trump, 141 S.
Ct. at 535 (internal quotation marks omitted). Standing and
ripeness both stem from the same constitutional limit and often
“boil down to the same question.” Driehaus, 573 U.S. at 157
n.5 (internal quotation marks omitted). Following the Court’s
lead, we usually refer to standing, though most of our analysis
applies to both.
   Standing and ripeness demand certainty and immediacy.
Pre-enforcement challenges fit oddly with these requirements.

                                6
They are “the exception rather than the rule.” Artway v. Att’y
Gen. N.J., 81 F.3d 1235, 1247 (3d Cir. 1996). Even in consti-
tutional cases, there is no “unqualified right to pre-enforcement
review.” Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson, 142 S. Ct. 522,
537–38 (2021). Yet we allow some such challenges. We do not
force people seeking to exercise their constitutional rights to
wait until they are prosecuted criminally. Driehaus, 573 U.S.
at 161.
    But pre-enforcement challenges must still satisfy Arti-
cle III. So we apply a specialized test to discern whether the
threat of enforcement is imminent. Id. at 159. The Foundation
must show that it or its members (1) intend to take action that
is (2) “arguably affected with a constitutional interest” but is
(3) arguably forbidden by the Law, and (4) the threat of en-
forcement against them is substantial. Id. (internal quotation
marks omitted). For a preliminary injunction, bare allegations
are not enough; the Foundation must produce evidence show-
ing “more than a mere possibility” that their rights are threat-
ened. Doe v. Nat’l Bd. of Med. Exam’rs, 199 F.3d 146, 152–53
(3d Cir. 1999).
   B. The Foundation’s intent to act is too general
    The Foundation stumbles out of the gate. It offers two theo-
ries of injury. First, it says the “very act of being subjected to
an amorphous nuisance suit under [the Law] … would injure
[the Foundation] and its members” because federal law “cre-
ates a substantive rule of law granting [them] immunity.” Ap-
pellee’s Br. 18 (internal quotation marks omitted). Second, it
says they are “already suffering” an injury to their First and
Second Amendment rights. Id. at 20. Because they do not know

                                7
what marketing and manufacturing will be considered unrea-
sonable, the Law supposedly chills their protected conduct. Id.
    Both theories fail. The first theory goes not to standing, but
to the merits. Even if federal law gives gun sellers a statutory
immunity that New Jersey would violate just by filing a com-
plaint, a statutory violation is not enough to show standing.
TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, 141 S. Ct. 2190, 2205 (2021).
The Foundation must also show how violating their purported
statutory immunity “has a close relationship to a harm tradi-
tionally recognized as providing a basis for a lawsuit in Amer-
ican courts.” Id. at 2204 (internal quotation marks omitted). It
has not done so. Nor has it explained why this potential statu-
tory (rather than constitutional) violation would justify pre-
enforcement review. We will not try to connect the dots for it.
    The Foundation’s second theory is not much better. It rests
on “generalized allegations.” Sherwin-Williams Co. v. County
of Delaware, 968 F.3d 264, 269 (3d Cir. 2020). The Founda-
tion says little about what it plans to do. It has pleaded that it
is an association of gun makers and sellers, and it has offered
declarations that the Law chills its members’ manufacturing,
marketing, and sales. From that evidence, we can infer that its
members plan to make, market, and sell guns. But that is all.
    Yet “an allegation that certain conduct has (or will have) a
chilling effect on one’s speech must claim a … threat of spe-
cific future harm.” Id. at 269–70 (internal quotation marks
omitted). The same goes for one’s Second Amendment rights.
But the Foundation makes no such specific claim. It repeatedly
conjures the specter of “sweeping liability” that will force its
members to shutter their businesses. App. 24, 27, 46; accord

                                8
App. 93, 96. Yet its bold assertion is backed by no evidence. A
plaintiff must do more than assert “subjective chill.” Clapper
v. Amnesty Int’l USA, 568 U.S. 398, 418 (2013) (internal quo-
tation marks omitted).
    Three years ago, we tossed out such a vague allegation. In
Sherwin-Williams, the plaintiff company “claim[ed] that the
specter of [a] potential lawsuit ha[d] caused it to reconsider and
question its membership in various trade organizations and its
petitioning to the government on any issues.” 968 F.3d at 270
(cleaned up). We rejected that claim as a “generalized allega-
tion insufficient to satisfy Article III’s requirements.” Id.
(cleaned up). So too here.
    These shortcomings undermine the Foundation’s intent to
act, which might alone suffice to torpedo standing. But they
also influence the other prongs. Though the Law clearly regu-
lates selling and marketing guns, whether the Foundation’s in-
tended conduct is arguably forbidden is murky. And in the
same vein, they also undermine the threat of enforcement.
   C. The Foundation has not shown that the threat of en-
      forcement is substantial
    The Foundation asserts that New Jersey “has said—
repeatedly—that it fully intends to deploy [the Law] against
[the Foundation’s] members, which it apparently considers ap-
propriate targets for no other reason [than] that they participate
in the legal firearms industry.” Appellee’s Br. 21. But it offers
no concrete examples of New Jersey’s making such statements.
Nor does it show any of the traditional signs of a threat of en-
forcement. And its alternative evidence is unconvincing.

                                9
    1. The Foundation lacks any signs of an enforcement threat.
In Driehaus, the Supreme Court described the necessary threat
of enforcement as “credible” and “substantial.” 573 U.S. at
158–59, 164. Of course, those words are flexible and must be
read in context. Fortunately, the Court supplied that context. It
distilled from its precedents several signs of a substantial
threat. Id. at 158–61. Some signs involve past enforcement;
others concern the enforcer. Not one is present here.
    Start with past enforcement. A strong sign of future en-
forcement is that a law has been enforced against the plaintiff,
a closely related party, or others for similar conduct. Id. at 159–
60, 164. It is also telling if enforcement actions are “not a rare
occurrence.” Id. at 161, 164–65. Yet the Law has not been en-
forced against anyone, let alone the Foundation or its members.
True, the Law is new, so lack of enforcement does not tell us
much either way. But the Foundation bears the burden to show
standing, and this indeterminate factor does not help it carry
that burden.
    Nor do the enforcer-related signs help. For one, the risk of
enforcement is greater when private parties can enforce the
law. Id. at 164. Inversely, the risk is lower when enforcement
is “restricted to state officials who are constrained by explicit
guidelines or ethical obligations.” Id. Only the Attorney Gen-
eral can enforce this Law. So any “eventual action will reflect
both legal and practical constraints, making any prediction
about future injury just that—a prediction.” Trump, 141 S. Ct.
at 536.
   For another, we consider what the enforcer has said about
enforcement plans. Driehaus, 573 U.S. at 161, 165. Though

                                10
statements made in litigation are hardly dispositive, they do
matter. And the Attorney General has disavowed prosecuting
the Foundation or its members just for participating in “lawful
commerce,” which is all the Foundation has said it wants to do.
Oral Arg. 5:23–35; see Matthew A. Goldstein, PLLC v. U.S.
Dep’t of State, 851 F.3d 1, 5 (D.C. Cir. 2017) (“[Plaintiff] of-
fers only vague and general descriptions of legal activities that
the firm intends to undertake, none of which the [government]
views as” unlawful).
    Instead, the Attorney General insists that the Law covers
only industry members’ “own misconduct.” Appellant’s Br.
15. Granted, we are not sure just how far the Attorney Gen-
eral’s view of “misconduct” sweeps. But the Foundation could
have asked the Attorney General to clarify what he will prose-
cute. See Presbytery of N.J. of Orthodox Presbyterian Church
v. Florio, 40 F.3d 1454, 1466–67 (3d Cir. 1994). And it is even
less clear what the Foundation and its members now fear to do.
    To be sure, the Foundation need not “confess that [it] will
in fact violate th[e] law.” Driehaus, 573 U.S. at 163. But it
must give us something to go on. For example, speakers need
not admit a plan to violate a ban on “false” or “deceptive” state-
ments; it is enough that “erroneous statement is inevitable in
free debate.” Id. at 160 (internal quotation marks omitted).
Here, by contrast, the Foundation never explains how simply
making, marketing, or selling guns will inevitably trigger this
Law.
    Indeed, the proposed “remedy crafted by the [Foundation]
underscores the contingent nature of [its] injuries.” Trump, 141
S. Ct. at 536. At oral argument, counsel for the Foundation said

                               11
an injunction trimming the Law down to fit the federal statute
would remedy its injury, so long as we also clarified the scope
of federal law. This concession reveals that the nature of indi-
vidual enforcement actions matters more than the Law itself,
especially for the Foundation’s first theory of injury. So “the
source of any injury to the plaintiffs is the action that the
[Attorney General] might take in the future … not the [Law]
itself in the abstract.” Id. (internal quotation marks omitted).
    With so much still vague and uncertain, a court should not
weigh in. “Letting the Executive Branch’s decisionmaking
process run its course not only brings more manageable pro-
portions to the scope of the parties’ dispute, but also ensures
that we act as judges, and do not engage in policymaking
properly left to elected representatives.” Id. (internal quotation
marks and citations omitted).
    2. The Foundation’s other evidence is weak. Sensing the
thinness of its proof, the Foundation points to four other pieces
of evidence that enforcement looms. None moves the needle.
    First, the Attorney General has set up an office to enforce
the Law. But “an officer stand[ing] ready to perform his duty
falls far short of such a threat as would warrant the intervention
of equity. And this is especially true where there is a complete
absence of any showing of a definite and expressed intent to
enforce particular clauses of a broad, comprehensive and
multi-provisioned statute.” Watson v. Buck, 313 U.S. 387, 400
(1941). The office is “akin to a statement of intent to prosecute
all violators of the statute under normal prosecutorial standards
that, absent allegations of prior threats or characteristics indi-
cating an especially high probability of enforcement, do[es] not

                               12
constitute a threat of enforcement.” Hemp Indus. Ass’n v. DEA,
36 F.4th 278, 291 (D.C. Cir. 2022) (brackets and internal quo-
tation marks omitted). The office suggests no specific threat to
the Foundation or its intended conduct.
    Second, New Jersey sought an emergency stay of the Dis-
trict Court’s injunction. Yet we hesitate to infer the Attorney
General’s enforcement priorities from his zealous defense of a
duly enacted state law. And because the District Court pur-
ported to enjoin enforcement against anyone, seeking a stay of
that injunction tells us little about the threat to the Foundation
or its members. Plus, the Foundation is the one who sued the
state and got the preliminary injunction, provoking the Attor-
ney General’s response to restore the status quo ante. So that
response does not create an injury. See, e.g., Clapper, 568 U.S.
at 416 (rejecting self-inflicted harm as injury in fact); cf. New
Rock Asset Partners, L.P. v. Preferred Entity Advancements,
Inc., 101 F.3d 1492, 1503–04 (3d Cir. 1996) (observing, in re-
moval context, that parties cannot “manipulate federal jurisdic-
tion” through “strategic behavior”).
    Third, at oral argument, the Foundation noted that Buffalo
has sued under a similar New York law. But a city’s decision
to sue under another state’s law tells us nothing about the New
Jersey Attorney General’s plans. As in Sherwin-Williams, we
will not impute one jurisdiction’s choices to another. 968 F.3d
at 272.
   Fourth, also at oral argument, the Foundation cited the
Law’s preamble to show a threat. Though the preamble gives
us a window into the legislature’s thinking, it tells us nothing
about the Attorney General’s focus. And the preamble zeroes

                               13
in on “bad actors in the gun industry.” N.J. Stat. § 2C:58-33.
The Foundation does not show how this suggests, much less
creates, a substantial risk of prosecution just for making, mar-
keting, and selling guns.
    So we are left with the same uncertainty we had in Sherwin-
Williams—the Attorney General “might sue” the Foundation
or its members, “but it might not.” 968 F.3d at 272.
   D. Plus, this Law is less chilling because it is civil, not
      criminal
    As discussed above, the Foundation has not shown a sub-
stantial likelihood that the Law will be enforced against it. That
alone suffices to defeat standing. And our holding that this case
is non-justiciable is bolstered by the Law’s purely civil nature.
The attenuated risk of enforcement here matters less for Article
III standing than in many pre-enforcement cases because the
Law is exclusively civil. In Driehaus and every pre-enforcement
case that it recounted, the statutes at issue included criminal
penalties. 573 U.S. at 158–60, 166. Indeed, as we noted at the
start, much of the point of pre-enforcement challenges is to let
people vindicate their constitutional rights without having to
risk prosecution. See id. at 161. But civil penalties lower the
temperature. And the same arguments made in the pre-
enforcement challenge can be raised as affirmative defenses
later. See Whole Woman’s Health, 142 S. Ct. at 538; Sherwin-
Williams, 968 F.3d at 270.
    True, defending a civil suit can be cumbersome. Driehaus
left open whether the threat of administrative penalties alone
would be enough for standing. 573 U.S. at 165–66; see also
Const. Party of Pa. v. Aichele, 757 F.3d 347, 364 n.20 (3d Cir.

                               14
2014). And we do not foreclose it either. But our inquiry into
the concrete “burdens” on constitutional rights is holistic and
fact-intensive. Driehaus, 573 U.S. at 165. And when the “ripe-
ness question is otherwise close, the distinction between crim-
inal and civil sanctions might tip the balance.” 13B Charles
Alan Wright et al., Federal Practice and Procedure § 3532.5
(3d ed. 2023). With the scales already tipped against the Foun-
dation, the lack of criminal penalties seals the case against it.
    In the end, “the chilling effect associated with a potentially
unconstitutional law being on the books is insufficient to jus-
tify federal intervention in a pre-enforcement suit. Instead, [the
Supreme] Court has always required proof of a more concrete
injury …. whether the challenged law in question is said to chill
the free exercise of religion, the freedom of speech, the right to
bear arms, or any other right.” Whole Woman’s Health, 142 S.
Ct. at 538 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).
                              *****
    Pre-enforcement challenges are unusual. To bring one, the
plaintiff must show that the stakes are high and close at hand.
Normally, that means constitutional rights are at issue, those
rights are threatened by significant penalties, and those penal-
ties might well be imposed, as shown by past enforcement in
similar situations or some other evidence of the threat.
    Yet this suit falls far short of even the “normal” pre-
enforcement challenge. A brand-new civil tort statute, without
more, does not justify a federal court’s intervention. Because
the Foundation’s case is not yet fully formed, we will vacate
the preliminary injunction and remand with instructions to dis-
miss this action for lack of jurisdiction.

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