The Supreme Court’s latest opinion on gun rights has done little so far to eliminate the disagreement and confusion among federal judges who must decide the constitutionality of gun restrictions across the nation, legal experts say.
In the United States v. Rahimi decision in June, the justices sought to clarify how the courts should analyze whether a firearm law violates the Second Amendment and wrote that some judges had “misunderstood” the court’s 2022 landmark decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which expanded gun rights.
While the Bruen decision found that restrictions must be consistent with the nation’s “historical tradition of firearm regulation,” the Rahimi decision said those laws do not require a “historical twin,” but instead should be “consistent with the principles that underpin our regulatory tradition.”
