Supremes weigh NYC’s old handgun law

The Supreme Court heard arguments Monday on a now-rescinded New York City handgun ordinance — the first major firearms case the high court has taken up in nearly a decade — but some justices questioned whether a ruling is even necessary.

The court agreed in January to hear a challenge to a law that prevented licensed owners from taking their locked and loaded handguns outside the city’s limits to firing ranges or second homes in the state.

The city removed the restrictions in July but the court agreed to proceed with the arguments anyway, raising the possibility that the 5-4 conservative majority on the court could expand gun rights for the first time since 2010.

Chief Justice John Roberts asked the city’s lawyers whether they could guarantee that the NYPD would not deny issuing gun licenses to people who violated the old law.

Richard Dearing, the city’s lawyer, said New York would not prosecute anyone based on past infractions.

Conservative Judges Neil

Gorsuch and Samuel Alito also expressed interest in finding ways to rule on the case.

But the four justices in the liberal wing of the court appeared ready to dismiss the case as moot.

“So what’s left of this case? Petitioners have gotten all the relief they sought,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg asked Paul Clement, the lawyer representing the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, which was among those who filed suit.

But Clement argued that it isn’t clear if a licensed gun owner traveling to a firing range would break the law by stopping for a bathroom break and said gun owners deserve a formal decision.