Abekassis v NYC - handgun licensing

[Euler]

Docket

Petition for Certiorari said:

In New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass'n, Inc. v. City of New York, ... this Court held that New York City's postcertiorari amendment to the challenged handgun regulations mooted the petitioners' claims.

 

Emboldened, the City continues to orchestrate the manipulation of judicial review of unconstitutional firearm regulations, in violation of the Second Amendment. The City's repeated and wrongful conduct, and the Second Circuit's disregard of it, give rise to this petition, which cries out for an exercise of this Court's supervisory power.

 

The questions presented are:

 

Whether, based on this Court's jurisprudence as articulated in City of Mesquite and Honig, the Second Circuit erred in dismissing this case as moot where New York City's calculated and repetitive actions were designed to evade appellate review.

 

Whether New York City's post-filing unsolicited issuance of a firearm license moots the live controversy where the licensee remains subject to the challenged regulations.

...

Petitioner, age 34, is a resident of New York City. Petitioner has no criminal convictions and no historically recognized prohibitors to the purchase or possession of firearms .... Petitioner applied to the NYPD License Division for a license to possess a handgun in his home for self-defense.

 

Notwithstanding this Court's holding in Heller, that the right to possess handguns for self-defense is absolute, barring the existence a longstanding and accepted disqualifier to firearm possession (i.e., felons and the insane), the License Division denied his application. The License Division determined that Petitioner was 'ineligible' to possess handguns due to (i) his lack of good moral character and (ii) other 'good cause' to deny the application under Penal Law ....

 

In New York City, lack of good moral character and/or 'good cause' to deny a handgun license application is determined by the enumerated "Grounds for Denial" found in the Rules of the City of New York, Title 38 ....

 

Relying on 38 RCNY ..., Petitioner was deemed ineligible and unfit to possess a handgun in his home for self-defense based on an arrest at the age of 15, which the N.Y. City Law Department declined to prosecute, untimely-paid fines, non-criminal infractions, and his driving history.

...

[Euler]

Petition denied.