Court opinion · 2022

New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen

In a 6–3 decision, the Court held that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home and struck down New York’s requirement that applicants for an unrestricted concealed-carry license show “proper cause.” Rejecting the two-step test used by lower courts, the Court held that a firearm regulation is constitutional only if the government shows it is consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.

“In keeping with Heller, we hold that when the Second Amendment’s plain text covers an individual’s conduct, the Constitution presumptively protects that conduct. To justify its regulation, the government may not simply posit that the regulation promotes an important interest. Rather, the government must demonstrate that the regulation is consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

Justice Clarence Thomas (majority opinion), June 23, 2022

Why it matters

The ruling invalidated similar discretionary licensing laws in several states and set the history-and-tradition standard now applied to gun laws; Justice Stephen Breyer’s dissent argued that the Court gave too little weight to the dangers of gun violence and to states’ efforts to address them.

Read the full text at supremecourt.gov

Primary Source

The original record, reproduced or linked from the institution that holds it. Primary sources show what people said and did in their own words.

Subjects

second amendment supreme court self-defense constitution

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