FTA: After nearly a decade and numerous denials, the U.S. Supreme Court will jump back into Second Amendment gun regulations. Is Justice Brett Kavanaugh the reason?
“It’s hard not to think that Kavanaugh’s replacement of Justice [Anthony] Kennedy was key here,” said Second Amendment scholar Adam Winkler of UCLA Law School. “The court has turned aside one gun case after another for nearly a decade, and almost immediately [after Kavanaugh is on the court] they take a Second Amendment case. It’s hard not to draw that inference.”
After nearly a decade and numerous denials, the U.S. Supreme Court will jump back into Second Amendment gun regulations. Is Justice Brett Kavanaugh the reason?
“It’s hard not to think that Kavanaugh’s replacement of Justice [Anthony] Kennedy was key here,” said Second Amendment scholar Adam Winkler of UCLA Law School. “The court has turned aside one gun case after another for nearly a decade, and almost immediately [after Kavanaugh is on the court] they take a Second Amendment case. It’s hard not to draw that inference.”
The case in which the justices granted review Tuesday could result in a limited, for-this-case-only decision, according to Winkler. Or the outcome could be a major ruling on two fundamental questions unanswered by the justices’ landmark Second Amendment decision in 2008: What is the constitutional test for gun regulations, and when can firearms be carried in public?
Tuesday’s grant—with no signed dissents—came in a challenge to New York City’s “premises” license law, which limits the transport of handguns to a home or seven shooting ranges within the city limits. Besides relying on the Second Amendment, the challengers, led by Kirkland & Ellis partner Paul Clement, also claim the law violates the right to travel and the commerce clause.
by Marcia Coyle
