In a clear 6-3 majority ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a New York law that required individuals to show "proper cause" to get a concealed carry license.
The much-anticipated ruling in the case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen was narrowed by the court last year to answer the question, "Whether the Second Amendment allows the government to prohibit ordinary law-abiding citizens from carrying handguns outside the home for self-defense."
In short, this week the court said that it does not.
"New York’s proper-cause requirement violates the Fourteenth Amendment in that it prevents law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their right to keep and bear arms," noted the majority opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas and joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, the last three all recent appointments by President Trump. The majority also filed three separate concurring opinions as well.
With New York's requirement found unconstitutional, this makes the often restrictive "may-issue" concealed carry laws in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, and Massachusetts, as well as the basically "no-issue" schemes in Hawaii, New Jersey, and the U.S. Virgin Islands untenable with NYSRPA v. Bruen as a benchmark.
"In particular, the Court’s decision does not affect the existing licensing regimes—known as 'shall-issue' regimes—that are employed in 43 States," said Justice Kavanaugh in a concurring opinion. "As the Court explains, New York’s outlier may-issue regime is constitutionally problematic because it grants open-ended discretion to licensing officials and authorizes licenses only for those applicants who can show some special need apart from self-defense."
Outgoing Justice Stephen Breyer penned a dissent in which Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined.
Guns.com will have more information on this case, and the repercussions of its ruling, as it unfolds.
