Justices seem ready to strike down N.Y. gun law

The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed ready to strike down a restrictive New York gun permitting law, but the justices also seemed worried about issuing a broad ruling that 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 over whether New York’s law violates the Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms.” The law’s defenders have said striking it down would lead to more guns on the streets of cities, including New York and Los Angeles.

Supreme Court decisions in 2008 and 2010 established a nationwide right to keep a gun at home for self-defense. The question the court is now confronting is about the right to carry a gun outside the home.

During two hours of arguments, conservative members of the court, where they have a 6-3 majority, suggested New York’s law and perhaps others like it in half a dozen other states go too far.

Why, Chief Justice John 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 need a license to exercise the right, I think, is unusual in the context of the Bill of Rights,” he said.

But Roberts also was among the justices who pressed a lawyer for the law’s challengers on the places where guns might be prohibited. Could a football stadium or a college campus be off limits, he asked. Could a state say, “You cannot carry your gun at any place where alcohol is served?”

Paul Clement, arguing on behalf of New York residents who want an unrestricted right to carry concealed weapons in public, replied that while restrictions on carrying a weapon at government buildings and schools are likely fine.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett told Clement that there’s a history of states outlawing guns in “sensitive places.” “Can’t we just say Times Square on New Year’s Eve is a sensitive place ... people are on top of each other ... so we’re making a judgment, it’s a sensitive place.”

Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested that difficult questions about where exactly guns can be prohibited might be left for another day.

“We don’t have to answer all the sensitive places questions in this case, some of which will be challenging no doubt, is that accurate?” he asked Clement, who agreed.