Two years ago, when the Supreme Court decided New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, it created a jurisprudential mess that scrambled American gun laws.
On Friday, not only did the cleanup begin, but the Supreme Court cleared the way for one of the most promising legal innovations for preventing gun violence: red flag laws.
Before Bruen, lower courts had struggled to establish a uniform legal test for evaluating gun restrictions, and the Supreme Court hadn’t provided any clarity.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the majority opinion in a 6-to-3 decision split along ideological lines.
Under a fair reading of Thomas’s opinion, lower courts would be hard pressed to uphold any gun restriction unless you could point to an obvious historical match.
Persons:
Brett Kavanaugh, hadn’t, Clarence Thomas
Organizations:
Supreme, New York State, Inc, ”
Locations:
Bruen