The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and its partners have filed a reply brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Novotny v. Moore, SAF’s challenge to Maryland’s so-called “sensitive places” carry ban.
“Sensitive places” designations could be the next battlefield in Second Amendment litigation, as states scrambled to create as much closed area as possible to lawful carry of firearms in public following the 2022 Bruen ruling by the high court. SAF is joined in this by Maryland Shall Issue, the Firearms Policy Coalition, Maryland State Rifle and Pistol Association and four private citizens.
In May, SAF petitioned the Supreme Court to hear the case challenging the constitutionality of Maryland’s ultra-restrictive “sensitive places” carry ban, passed after the landmark Bruen ruling forced the state to begin issuing concealed carry permits. Lawmakers sought to circumvent Bruen by passing a new law prohibiting carry in an overlapping patchwork of newly defined areas deemed “sensitive places.”
The 12-page details examples of what the Maryland statute considers “sensitive places” which are open to the public, “The restrictions at issue bar carriage, among other places on mass transit, at many healthcare facilities, in vast acreages of public parks and forests, at “places of amusement,” and anywhere that sells alcohol for on site consumption (including restaurants).
The Court returns for its October 2026-June 2027 session on Oct. 5, the first Monday of the month.
“The Supreme Court has been clear that the Second Amendment protects a right for individuals to carry for self-defense as they go about their daily lives,” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “Put bluntly, when forced by the Supreme Court to issue carry permits, Maryland simply made those permits useless everywhere. Today’s reply makes clear that neither Maryland, nor the other jurisdictions that passed similar laws, should be allowed to so blatantly thumb their noses at the Supreme Court or the Constitution.”
As noted in the brief, “This scheme is fundamentally incompatible with the American tradition, which ‘does not broadly restrict arms use by the public generally,’ subject to limitations in ‘exceptional circumstances.’ There is nothing ‘exceptional’ about visiting a park or riding public transit. That Maryland’s bans sweep so broadly shows that they are built on faulty foundations.”
“Not wanting to let something like a Supreme Court decision stand in their way of infringing on the Second Amendment rights of citizens, lawmakers in Maryland passed this carry ban that essentially makes residents carrying a firearm for self-defense a criminal,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb. “This circumvention of the Second Amendment is becoming commonplace and cannot be allowed to stand. Citizens deserve to fully exercise all their constitutional freedoms, but as we are well aware, there are those who feel the Second Amendment is a second-class right. That’s not the way the Constitution works, and we will continue to fight these idealogues at every turn to ensure the right to keep and bear arms is defended, secured and restored.”
