The Supreme Court has signaled that it will dismiss on procedural grounds the first Second Amendment case it has heard in nearly a decade.
The court heard oral arguments on Monday in a gun rights case against New York City brought by three city residents and the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association. The case centers on a since-amended rule that blocked licensed gun owners from transporting their firearm outside the residence listed on the gun’s “premises license.” The petitioners said the law violates the Constitution’s Commerce Clause by regulating interstate trade.
Chief Justice John Roberts joined the bench’s liberal bloc to indicate that the case should be dismissed. New York City changed the law to relieve the petitioners’ concerns after the Supreme Court agreed to hear oral arguments in the case.
“What’s left of this case?” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg asked at one point. “Petitioners got all the relief they sought.”
Roberts posed a similar question, asking if the case’s petitioners could be held liable for violating a law that no longer exists.
Conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch appeared to favor issuing a ruling on the case. In a 2017 dissent, Gorsuch had joined Justice Clarence Thomas in accusing the court of treating the Second Amendment as “a disfavored right” for refusing to hear a firearms case out of California.
The Supreme Court last heard a gun rights case in 2010, issuing a ruling that expanded the 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller decision to apply to state law. The Heller decision held that the Second Amendment protects one’s right to keep a gun in his home for self-defense.
