Cavalier Knight's Challenge to N.Y. Bricks-and-Mortar Requirement for Gun Dealers Can Go Forward |
Guns
Eugene Volokh | 1.14.2026 2:53 PM
An excerpt from Knight v. City of New York, decided yesterday by the Second Circuit, in an opinion by Judges Denny Chin, Richard Sullivan, and Maria Araújo Kahn:
Cavalier D. Knight, a would-be gun dealer residing in New York City [challenges a New York City regulation requiring] applicants for firearms dealer licenses to "maintain a place of business in the city," which effectively requires the applicant to maintain a brick-and-mortar location.
The trial court concluded Knight lacked standing to bring the challenge, but the appellate court reversed, and sent the case back down for a substantive Second Amendment analysis:
To satisfy Article III's standing requirement, "a plaintiff must demonstrate: (1) injury-in-fact, which means 'an actual or imminent' and 'concrete and particularized' harm to a 'legally protected interest'; (2) causation of the injury, which means that the injury is 'fairly traceable' to the challenged action of the defendant; and (3) redressability, which means that it is 'likely,' not speculative, that a favorable decision by a court will redress the injury." For an injury in fact to be concrete and particularized, it must "actually exist" and "affect the plaintiff in a personal and........