Kerry Picket of the Daily Caller probes the potential impact of the newest U.S. Supreme Court justice on gun-rights cases.

If the Supreme Court becomes the final arbiter of a California concealed carry case, their final decision could represent the court’s decision on potential Second Amendment cases in the near future. With Neil Gorsuch sworn in Monday as the 9th justice to the Supreme Court, gun rights advocates hope he follows in the tradition of the late Justice Antonin Scalia when it comes to Second Amendment rights.

During the Gorsuch nomination in the Senate, the National Rifle Association dropped $1 million into an ad buy supporting the Colorado judge to the court, in a bet that he, once a clerk of Justice Kennedy, would rule in favor of Second Amendment rights cases. …

… Back in January, the NRA filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to hear the California-based case from Peruta v. San Diego. The case case is one of five that the high court will decide in coming days as to whether it will take up after the 9th circuit ruled in favor of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department over California resident and gun owner Edward Peruta.

Peruta challenged his county’s rejection of a request for a concealed carry permit that would allow him to carry concealed firearm outside of his residence. However, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department restricts concealed carry permits to anyone who can prove they have a particular need for self-defense for a specific threat.

“The whole point of the Sheriff’s policy is to confine concealed-carry licenses to a very narrow subset of law-abiding residents,” Peruta’s attorneys wrote. “And because California law prohibits openly carrying a handgun outside the home, the result is that the typical law-abiding resident cannot bear a handgun for self-defense outside the home at all.”