Could this be reversed based on a technicality? ... The plaintiff's case was about whether San Diego County's "conceal weapons" "show good cause" licencing policy was constitutional or not; however, the Majority answered an even broader question. They didn't answer the question that was specifically before them; they answered and ruled on whether both an open AND conceal carry ban was constitutional. The dissenting judge does have a point there.
That technicality does not exist in the majority opinion.
The question about about the "good cause" policy of San Diego's Sheriff has a direct relationship about whether the right extends beyond the home. That becomes the first question to be answered.
If the right does not extend to the public sphere, then the analysis stops right there and the central question does not even need to be determined.
That is exactly what the CA2, CA3 and CA4 did not do. There was no determination if the right to self defense existed beyond the home. Fact is, those circuits never even defined the core of the right. They assumed that the specific facts of
Heller applied to a different question (as have the majority of the courts). Regardless, without that determination, any and all CC laws are rational and therefore constitutional.
Here, the court made that determination. Once it was determined that the right to self defense was the core right, and hence existed beyond the door stop, then the court turned to whether or not the CC "good cause" policy was in accord with the right. As long as self defense was a good cause, then the policy is constitutional. If not, the policy infringes the right to extinction, since OC is against the law.
Judge O'Scannlain followed exactly how the
Heller majority laid out as the reasons for finding what they did in the D.C. case.
In the D.C. case, the Supreme Court could not answer the question, until they answered whether or not the right was an individual right. They found that it was a personal right and then answered the question.
This is exactly what O'Scannlain did.