High court appears set to strike down NY gun law
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed ready to strike down a restrictive New York gun permitting law, but the justices also seemed worried that a broad ruling could threaten gun restrictions on subways, bars, stadiums and other gathering places.
The court was hearing arguments in its biggest guns case in more than a decade, a dispute about New York’s law and if it violates the Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms.”
Chief Justice John Roberts and other conservative members of the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, suggested New York’s law goes too far. Why, Roberts asked, does a person seeking a license to carry a gun in public for self defense have to show a special need to do so.
“The idea that you would need a license to exercise a right is unusual with regard to the Bill of Rights,” he said.
But Roberts was also among the justices who pressed a lawyer for the law’s challengers on where guns might be prohibited.
Could a football stadium or a college campus be off limits, he asked.
“What sort of place do you think they could be excluded from? Any place where alcohol is served?” Roberts said.
Paul Clement, arguing on behalf of New York residents who want an unrestricted right to carry concealed weapons in public, replied that while government buildings and schools might be off limits, bars “might be a tougher case for the government.”
But answering questions from Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett,
Clement suggested that perhaps bans on guns in the New York City subway system, Yankee Stadium and Times Square on New Year’s Eve might be OK.
The court’s liberals seemed willing to allow the state law to remain in place, especially focusing on differences between rural areas and more densely populated cities and suburbs. The law’s defenders have said that striking it down will lead to more guns on the streets of cities including New York and Los Angeles.
The court last issued major gun rights decisions in 2008 and 2010. Those decisions established a nationwide right to keep a gun at home for selfdefense.
The question for the court now has to do with carrying a gun in public for selfdefense.
In most of the country gun owners have little difficulty legally carrying weapons. But about half a dozen states, including populous California and several Eastern states, restrict the carrying of guns to those who can demonstrate a particular need for doing so. The justices could decide if those laws, known as “may issue” laws, can stand.
The arguments come as gun violence has surged. Gun-control groups say if a high court ruling requires states to drop restrictions, the result will be more violence. Gun-rights groups say the risk of a confrontation is why they have a right to be armed.
The New York law the court is reviewing has been in place since 1913 and says that to carry a concealed handgun in public for self-defense, a person applying for a license has to demonstrate “proper cause,” an actual need to carry the weapon.