The court will review a New York law limiting concealed carry in public, setting up the first major Second Amendment ruling in more than a decade.
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to review a New York law limiting the right to carry a concealed weapon outside of the home, setting up the court’s first major Second Amendment ruling in over a decade.
The case, which has the potential to significantly expand gun rights and limit states’ ability to restrict the carrying of firearms, will provide the first clues into how the court’s new six-justice conservative majority will approach Second Amendment cases going forward.
The case is centered on a longstanding New York law that requires people who apply for a permit to carry a concealed weapon outside of the home to prove “proper cause,” such as the need for self-defense. Two men who were denied permits, along with the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, argue that the law violates the Second Amendment and is “antithetical to the constitutional freedom itself.”
The justices will hear arguments in the case during the court’s term that begins in October.
At least seven other states have similar laws, according to gun rights groups and The New York Times, which notes lower courts have largely rejected challenges to such restrictions. In March, for example, a panel of judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco upheld a Hawaii law that similarly limits carry permits to people who demonstrate they have a need to have a firearm in public.
The court has not decided a major gun rights case in more than a decade, with Justice Clarence Thomas in 2018 declaring that “the right to keep and bear arms is apparently this Court’s constitutional orphan.”
The court ruled in District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008 that individuals have the right to keep a gun in the home for self-defense, and in 2010 ruled that this right extended to laws enacted by state and local governments. The high court in 2019 heard a challenge to a New York City gun regulation, but dismissed the case as moot last year after New York City changed its rules.
The court’s consideration of the petition comes after a spate of mass shootings in recent months and calls from President Joe Biden to tighten gun regulations.
