SCOTUS Strikes Down New York Concealed Carry Restrictions

The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that longtime restrictions New York has placed on carrying concealed firearms violates Americans’ Second and 14th Amendment rights.

The high court ruled 6-3 in favor of gun rights in the case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen. The court heard oral arguments in the case in November, and the court’s conservative majority appeared to lean toward dismissing New York’s restrictions at the time. Thursday’s decision is the widest expansion of gun rights in more than a decade, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The case centered on a 1911 New York state law that conditioned the right to a concealed carry permit on “good moral character” and “proper cause.” The Supreme Court majority opinion, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, took issue with the latter condition, which unlawfully forced New Yorkers to demonstrate “a special need for self-defense.”

“We know of no other constitutional right that an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers some special need. That is not how the First Amendment works when it comes to unpopular speech or the free exercise of religion. It is not how the Sixth Amendment works when it comes to a defendant’s right to confront the witnesses against him. And it is not how the Second Amendment works when it comes to public carry for self-defense,” Thomas wrote. – READ MORE