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Attorney General Lynn Fitch released the following statement on the Supreme Court’s opinion in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v Bruen:
“Today’s opinion is a victory for law-abiding gun owners and for the Second Amendment. The Justices have clarified the standards that lower courts should use in addressing laws that come into conflict with the Second Amendment. As Justice Thomas wrote in the majority opinion, prior precedents are clear that the Second Amendment is itself the product of a balancing of interests. When courts engage in additional balancing tests, they risk elevating their own evolving views or the views of the Legislature above the Constitutionally protected rights of the people. Particularly now, with crime at record highs in many parts of the country, the people have an understandable interest in self-defense, and New York’s law denied them the ability to protect themselves from harm. The Court’s thorough opinion today should help law-abiding gun owners to better enjoy their personal safety, security, and peace of mind.”
The New York law in question barred citizens from carrying a handgun in public without a license – a license only available if the citizen was able to demonstrate “proper cause.” The citizens who brought this case applied for licenses based on their interest in self-defense, which the State said failed to satisfy the “proper cause” requirement.
Last year, Attorney General Fitch joined a coalition of 23 State Attorneys General in an amicus brief supporting the petition for certiorari and a coalition of 26 State Attorneys General in an amicus brief on the merits of the case. As the States noted in their first brief, “The widespread adoption of judge-made, interest-balancing tests has introduced incoherency into the jurisprudence of the Second Amendment and undermined the liberty that the Amendment guarantees.”
