New Jersey's assault-firearm restrictions and 10-round magazine limit remain enforceable while Attorney General Jennifer Davenport prepares a Supreme Court petition. A status report is due September 3.

New Jersey's gun restrictions did not fall Tuesday.

The same federal appeals court that declared the state's bans on semiautomatic rifles and magazines holding more than 10 rounds unconstitutional has now slammed the brakes on its own decision. Attorney General Jennifer Davenport is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to step in.

The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit granted the state's motion to stay its mandate on August 4. The order keeps New Jersey's current restrictions enforceable. This comes despite the court's 10-5 ruling against them less than three weeks earlier.

Davenport called the stay a source of stability. "That ensures this 36-year-old law will remain in place as litigation continues — providing much-needed stability on the ground," she said.

The procedural distinction matters enormously.

The Third Circuit has not reconsidered the merits of its July 17 opinion. That decision remains on the books. But the court's mandate will not take effect while the Supreme Court process continues. A mandate is the order that formally sends a judgment back to the lower court for enforcement.

Gun dealers and owners cannot treat the July ruling as permission to sell or possess firearms and magazines still prohibited by New Jersey law. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

Stay Could Last Through a Supreme Court Decision

The Third Circuit's order covers three consolidated appeals: Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs v. Attorney General, Cheeseman v. Attorney General, and a second ANJRPC action.

The court stayed its mandate until the Supreme Court disposes of New Jersey's anticipated petition for a writ of certiorari. Or until the state's time to file that petition expires. Should the justices take the case, the freeze on the mandate would continue through their final ruling.

A separate clerk's order directs the parties to file a status report by September 3.

That structure avoids a temporary change in New Jersey law while the case moves between courts. Without a stay, previously prohibited rifles and magazines could have entered the state after the mandate issued. Then what? A later Supreme Court reversal could have exposed owners to renewed criminal restrictions. No clear mechanism for recovering, registering, or grandfathering the items. The state raised that concern in its July 31 motion. The appeals court granted the request four days later. It did not explain which stay factors it found controlling.

July Ruling Reached Beyond the AR-15

The dispute began with New Jersey's 1990 Assault Firearms Law. It prohibits listed firearms and weapons deemed 'substantially identical' to them. The law also restricted magazines holding more than 15 rounds. Legislators lowered that limit to 10 rounds in 2018.

A federal district judge reached a divided result in 2024. The court struck down the prohibition as applied to the Colt AR-15. But it upheld the magazine restriction.

The Third Circuit's en banc majority went considerably further on July 17. The majority held that both the rifle ban and the magazine limit violate the Second Amendment. The court found that the weapons and magazines fall within the Amendment's plain text and that New Jersey failed to show a sufficiently similar historical tradition supporting its near-total prohibitions.

The court took the district judge's AR-15 ruling and applied it to every semiautomatic rifle on the list. It reversed the lower court on magazines, too. Other firearms the law covers — some pistols and shotguns among them — went back to the district court for further proceedings. The ruling did not resolve every application of the state's assault-firearm law.

Five judges broke with the majority, filing three dissents and one partial concurrence.

Supreme Court Has Already Taken a Related Rifle Case

New Jersey's petition will reach a Supreme Court that has already accepted a case asking whether the Constitution guarantees the right to possess AR-15-style and similar semiautomatic rifles.

On June 30, the justices accepted Viramontes v. Cook County. They consolidated it with Grant v. Higgins, a challenge to Connecticut's restrictions. The question before the Court: whether the Second and Fourteenth Amendments "guarantee the right to possess AR-15 platform and similar semiautomatic rifles."

That overlap gives New Jersey a strong procedural reason to seek review. The Third Circuit's ruling also created a direct conflict with appellate decisions upholding comparable restrictions elsewhere.

But the New Jersey litigation reaches beyond the question the Supreme Court accepted in Viramontes. It also invalidated the state's magazine-capacity limit. The justices could hear the New Jersey dispute separately. They could hold it until the related cases are decided. Or they could decline review and allow the Third Circuit judgment to take effect.

The Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs, the state NRA affiliate, called the July 17 decision a historic victory for gun owners. The organization has pursued the magazine litigation since 2018. It challenged the broader firearms restrictions after the Supreme Court changed the legal framework for Second Amendment cases in 2022.

The stay postpones that victory's practical effect. For now.

New Jersey's prohibited-firearms rules and 10-round magazine ceiling remain in force. The Third Circuit has ruled that central portions of those laws violate the Constitution. But it has also ensured that nothing changes on the ground. Not until the Supreme Court has an opportunity to act.

Sources

-• Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs, "Court Strikes Down NJ AW Ban & Mag Ban As Unconstitutional!" (July 17, 2026)

• New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, "Statement from Attorney General Jennifer Davenport on Third Circuit's Grant of a Stay in Assault Weapons/Large-Capacity Magazines Case" (August 4, 2026)

• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs v. Attorney General , Nos. 24-2415, 24-2450, 24-2506, docket (August 4, 2026)

• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs v. Attorney General , Nos. 24-2415, 24-2450, 24-2506, en banc opinion (July 17, 2026)

• U.S. Supreme Court, Viramontes v. Cook County , No. 25-238, docket (June 30, 2026)

• U.S. Supreme Court, Viramontes v. Cook County , No. 25-238, question presented (June 30, 2026)