Supreme Court declines to hear challenge to concealed carry restrictions

The Supreme Court declined Monday to take up a closely watched gun rights case that challenged restrictions on concealed carry — a decision that earned a stinging rebuke from Justice Clarence Thomas.

In opting not to hear Peruta v. California, the high court let stand an en banc ruling from the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld a California law requiring a gun owner to show “good cause” in order to obtain a permit to carry a concealed handgun in public. The state law left the authority to decide what constitutes “good cause” up to local authorities, like sheriffs or police chiefs.

Gun owner Edward Peruta, of San Diego County, brought the case after he sought to carry concealed firearms for self-defense but was denied a concealed-carry license in 2009 because he was unable to show good cause.

Justice Thomas, who was joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch in his dissent, wrote that the lower court’s ruling erred because it had narrowly considered only whether the regulatory concealed carry scheme established by a local sheriff was valid, not whether residents had a broader right to carry firearms openly in public. California law prohibits open carry.