The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled Tuesday that New Jersey’s ban on large-capacity magazines (LCMs), defined as magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition, is permitted under the Second Amendment.

New Jersey passed a law in 2018 that made it illegal to possess LCMs. Upon enactment, the plaintiffs filed suit, challenging the law’s constitutionality under the Second Amendment, as well as the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

The district court upheld the act, denied the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, and ultimately rejected the plaintiffs’ Fifth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment claims. The case was appealed before, where a previous three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling, including the denial of the plaintiffs’ preliminary injunction.

The appeals court stated in its Tuesday opinion:

There is certainly room for vigorous debate about the prior decision. The thorough dissent shows that. But whether we agree with the majority’s opinion or not, we cannot say that it is clearly wrong or manifestly unjust. Even if we ignore that many other circuit courts have reached the same conclusion as the prior panel, with respect to very similar laws, there is evident in the prior panel’s work thoughtful consideration of the record and the relevant legal principles. Whether the prior panel ultimately got things wrong is not the question now. The question is whether it went so far astray that its decision can be called clearly wrong and manifestly unjust. The answer to that is no. We are therefore bound to respect the decision rendered by the prior panel, which ends this appeal.