Supreme Court upholds Second Amendment in NY gun permit case
National Security Institute’s Jamil Jaffer responds to Justice Clarence Thomas' use of the Second and Fourteenth Amendments in gun permit ruling.
The Supreme Court rejected a bid by New York gun retailers on Wednesday to block a slew of new gun control laws in the state, which they argued violate their Second Amendment rights and hurt their businesses.
There were no noted dissents in the order or explanations from the justices for their decision.
"We are disappointed that not one of the nine justices saw fit to grant the plaintiffs some stay of enforcement of the new laws against them," Paloma Capanna, the lead attorney for the New York gun retailers, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.
"We are challenging the ability of the state of New York to target dealers in firearms in the lawful stream of commerce, to put them out of business, which is what the new laws will do," Capanna added. "So it really was unfortunate to see that we couldn't get any emergency temporary injunction against those laws."
A customer looks at long guns at Coliseum Gun Traders Ltd. in Uniondale, New York. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)
New York Attorney General Letitia James praised the Supreme Court's decision on Wednesday, saying that the "gun safety laws help save lives, and keep our state safer."
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Wednesday's order comes one week after the high court rejected a separate bid by gun rights activists to block the Concealed Carry Improvement Act, which was implemented last year by New York's Democrat-controlled legislature.
New York lawmakers passed that bill after the Supreme Court struck down the state's prior concealed carry law in June 2022 in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in that opinion for the court that "the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home."
Signs read "Gun Free Zone" in New York City's Manhattan borough. (Jennifer Golotko/Fox News Digital)
The new law prohibits carrying a gun in "sensitive areas," such as stadiums, houses of worship, museums, parks and other public places; imposes revised record-keeping and new safety requirements on retailers; and mandates background checks on all ammunition purchases.
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Capanna, the attorney for the gun retailers, argued that new record-keeping laws could amount to an unconstitutional gun registry.
"The list of new mandatory compliance even goes so far as a turnover of acquisition and disposition records… which the state of New York attorneys have admitted will be used to create the first-ever gun owners registry housed at the New York State Police," Capanna said Wednesday.
Multiple challenges to the new law are continuing to play out in lower courts.
Fox News' Shannon Bream and Bill Mears contributed to this report.
