U.S. Supreme Court leaves California’s concealed-guns law intact
California’s concealed-weapons law, a virtual ban on carrying a hidden handgun on the streets of San Francisco and most other urban areas, survived a U.S. Supreme Court challenge by gun groups Monday.

Over the dissents of Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, the court denied review of a federal appeals court ruling that upheld the century-old law. Thomas said the ruling, now final, treated the constitutional right to bear arms as “a disfavored right.”

The law requires private citizens to obtain licenses from local law enforcement offices to carry concealed handguns in public. Although sheriff’s offices in rural areas generally grant licenses to those claiming a need to pack a gun for self-defense, license permits in metropolitan areas, including San Francisco and Oakland, are generally denied to private citizens, other than police and security guards.