BELLEVUE, Wash. —March 2, 2026 — The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) has filed a petition for rehearing in Defense Distributed v. Attorney General of New Jersey after a three-judge Third Circuit panel recently dismissed the case.
Originally filed in 2018, the case challenges New Jersey statute which prohibits the publication of computer files containing digital firearms information on First and Second Amendment grounds. The dismissal was largely based not on the substantive constitutional claims, but on legal technicalities and perceived factual deficiencies in the record presented to the court.
“The Third Circuit’s panel opinion included a number of analytical errors that run contrary to well-established legal precedent,” said SAF Director of Legal Operations Bill Sack. “We are hopeful that our petition for rehearing inspires some additional reflection and research and either the panel, or the entire bench, is willing to step in and set things straight.”
As noted in the petition, “This appeal challenges the New Jersey Attorney General’s long-running censorship of Second Amendment speech. It implicates fundamental speech rights protected in parallel by both the First and Second Amendments and exposes ‘the abusive manipulation of federal court procedures’ designed to evade merits review, bringing ‘issues that implicate not only the parties’ interests but those of the judicial system itself.’”
“This case has languished in the system since 2018 and it’s entirely unacceptable how the Third Circuit panel found every reason it could to avoid facing the issues we’ve presented head on,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “This case has been plagued by complicated legal gamesmanship and a tortured procedural history, all aimed at undercutting protections guaranteed by the Constitution that the court may find distasteful.”
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