Heller is 100% de facto ignored, some good that turd did.
It takes years and a ton of money for any case to make it to the Court. Those willing to take the cases all the way up do so advisedly; first, see the above - not just the Court but the organizations that brought us
Heller and
McDonald want to take that path, too. The impact is growing, and regarding the egregious state laws, keep in mind it's been a mere 11 years - yes only 11 - since
McDonald, citing
Heller, recognized the incorporation of
Heller against the states:
McDonald and subsequent/related cases caused Chicago and most of its northern suburbs to repeal their bans on handgun possession
Guy Montag eliminated firearm possession restrictions in public housing
Morris effectively tore down bans on carry/possession on federal lands
Caetano tore down MA's bans and/or egregious license requirements for many common personal defense items (stun guns in the case, but arguably sprays as well)
Illinois now has resident concealed carry licenses and they actually issue
Palmer forced D.C. to create and issue CC licenses, arguably still a "wait and see" regarding how it's administered and probably waiting on a scrutiny case first
In a cluster of related cases,
Heller/
McDonald is being thrown at NYC, which keeps playing change-the-ordinance to moot cases; they will eventually be heard should the games continue, possibly after a scrutiny case
In a cluster of related cases, Chicago, like NYC, is playing ordinance games on the way to having to allow ranges, and likely gun stores, in the city
Knife laws are about to be challenged nationwide; see C
aetano for an idea of how that might go
All those cases we see being decided wrong in the district and circuit courts are going to accumulate until there is a clear split on a specific issue, or until there is a plain case that doesn't depend on scrutiny level. But - and this is huge - no right can be applied correctly when a state argues that it's balancing rights vs. the state interest in public safety
until the standard of review is determined. That's literally what decides that argument. Almost everything "on pause" at the Supreme Court is going to start to move forward again after they get a good Circuit split on the specific topic of level of scrutiny for the 2nd and render a hardline decision on a case regarding that level of scrutiny. Meanwhile, only cases where the level of scrutiny would not change the outcome are going to get heard by the Court.