Capping off a month that has already featured more than 40 mass shootings across the United States, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a National Rifle Association-backed challenge to a New York state gun control law—triggering new calls for Democrats to urgently “expand the court.”
Slate staff writer Mark Joseph Stern, who covers courts and the law, pointed out in a series of tweets Monday that “this case is likely to pave the way to the Supreme Court declaring a constitutional right to concealed public carry, overriding many state and local restrictions on the ability to bear concealed arms in public.”
“Congress and the White House can prioritize court expansion, adding liberal justices to prevent the current six–three majority from eradicating gun safety laws. Or they can watch as the majority exacerbates the nation’s epidemic of gun violence by imposing a vision of the Second Amendment that data has indicated leads to more handgun-related homicides,” Stern added in an article Monday. “The choice has never been so clear. And the stakes can be measured in human lives.
The potentially landmark case, according to SCOTUSblog, “will be argued in the fall, with a decision expected sometime next year.”
The justices’ decision to take up the case comes just weeks after President Joe Biden announced six initial actions to begin tackling the nation’s “gun violence public health epidemic” and signed an executive order to establish a 36-member commission that will analyze arguments for and against reforming the high court.