The Supreme Court on Monday sidestepped a Second Amendment challenge over New York City’s gun rule restricting the transportation of firearms, saying the dispute had been resolved after the city decided to change the rule.
Gun rights advocates argued the city’s policy violated their constitutional rights by banning them from transporting firearms to a second home outside the city or to a shooting range.
After the Supreme Court agreed to review the case, the city changed its rule to meet those concerns.
In an unsigned opinion, the justices said the case was now “moot.”
The gun owners hoped to recover damages, but the justices remanded that issue back to the lower court to evaluate.
The dispute began in 2013 when three individuals and a gun rights organization challenged the city’s tight restrictions.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote a lengthy dissent, saying the gun rights advocates did not receive complete relief from the city’s amended rule and the dispute should not have been viewed as moot.
He said the high court ruled 12 years ago in District of Columbia v. Heller that individuals had a right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment but some courts have not applied that precedent correctly.
Justice Alito noted that New York City and the state defended the ordinance in the lower court successfully, but once the challenge was taken up by the high court, officials decided to change the law and move for dismissal.
“By incorrectly dismissing this case as moot, the court permits our docket to be manipulated in a way that should not be countenanced,” he said.
Several Democratic lawmakers led by Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse submitted a brief to the high court arguing for dismissal on behalf of the city. They suggested that if the court were to weigh in on the Second Amendment issue, it would be viewed as partisan.
Justice Alito saw that as a form of intimidation. “If the court did not do so, they intimated, the public would realize that the court is ’motivated mainly by politics, rather than by adherence to the law,’ and the court would face the possibility of legislative reprisal,” he wrote in the dissent. “Regrettably, the court now dismisses the case as moot.”
He said the city’s travel restriction did not recognize the right to keep and bear arms.
“History provides no support for a restriction of this type. The city’s public safety arguments were weak on their face, were not substantiated in any way, and were accepted below with no serious probing,” Justice Alito wrote.
Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh agreed with Justice Alito that the court’s precedent was not being applied correctly by lower courts, but he thought the action was moot based on procedural grounds.
“The court should address that issue soon, perhaps in one of the several Second Amendment cases with petitions for certiorari now pending before the court,” Justice Kavanaugh wrote.
Gun control groups saw the court’s decision to dismiss the New York City challenge as a major victory.
“It’s yet another loss for an NRA and gun lobby that are in disarray and at odds with the majority of Americans who want the government to keep them safe,” said Hannah Shearer, litigation director for Giffords Law Center.
“The surge in gun sales and the increasing risk of gun suicides, domestic violence, and accidents that have come with it have proven gun violence is an ongoing threat that must be met with the flexibility to enforce common-sense regulations. Today’s decision rejects the NRA’s invitation to use a moot case to enact its extreme agenda aimed at gutting gun safety laws supported by a majority of Americans,” she added.
But gun rights groups said other important Second Amendment cases are pending before the justices, looking ahead to other opportunities after Monday’s dismissal.
Alan Gottlieb, the founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, has four cases seeking review at the high court. Two of the cases challenge gun licensing programs in California and Illinois.
“We hope that one or all of these cases gets heard and gives notice to lower courts that they can no longer thumb their noses at the prior rulings that protect Second Amendment rights,” he said.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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