Sen. Cruz Leads Amicus Brief to SCOTUS Opposing New York’s Attempt to Undermine Federal Firearms Law

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights, led an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to overturn a Second Circuit ruling and uphold the Second Amendment by preventing New York from bypassing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA).

Excerpts from the amicus brief are below, and the full text of the brief can be viewed here.

"The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution ensures law-abiding and peaceable American citizens the right to keep and bear arms. But no one besides accomplished gunsmiths could exercise that right if a citizen could not lawfully purchase a firearm because the firearm industry had become insolvent. Congress passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) to prevent that outcome by placing firearm manufacturers on equal footing with other American manufacturers. Under the Act, so long as a firearm is properly made and properly transferred into commercial channels, a manufacturer is generally not liable if a criminal later misuses that firearm in the commission of a crime. In particular, the PLCAA forecloses the imposition of liability under flexible and indistinct common-law standards that provide firearm manufacturers with no notice of the precise conduct that is required or to be avoided. Indeed, that was the statute's core purpose.

"The State of New York is unhappy with any impediments to its ability to bankrupt lawful arms manufacturers based on the actions of New York criminals whom the State is unable or unwilling to control. In the State's view-adopted by the Second Circuit-the PLCAA is a paper tiger that any state legislature may tame by simply codifying vague and unpredictable common-law standards and explicitly applying the new code provisions only to the firearms industry.'

"The State and the court below are too clever by half. This case presents an issue of exceptional importance with regard to the states' ability to circumvent the preemptive force of federal legislation. The PLCAA is not a mere Kabuki feint designed to encourage its own circumvention. Rather, the Act was designed to, and does, preempt efforts to impose hazy common-law liability standards whether or not codified by a state legislature to target the firearms industry. This Court should intervene now before the Second Circuit's decision, directly or through its influence, further undermines the Second Amendment and congressional will."

Joining Sen. Cruz in filing this amicus brief were Sens. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Shelley Capito (R-W.Va.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Jim Justice (R-W.Va.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), James Risch (R-Idaho), and Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.).