Hardly a day or a week goes by without another mass shooting. But the opinion authored by Thomas (and joined by the other five extreme right-wing justices) in New York Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022) has made most commons (sic) sense gun control regulations illegal and will lead to more people being killed and maimed by weapons of war that have no business in the hands of civilians. It also imposed a cramped, extremist version of right-wing “originalism” on Supreme Court interpretation.
As I recently wrote, in only the past year, lower federal courts have quickly followed the precedent of Thomas’s Bruen opinion to hold that:
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- A spousal abuser has a constitutional right to gun ownership, since “Our ancestors who wrote the laws [i.e white men] would never have accepted such restrictions.” (After all, wife beating was pretty socially acceptable in 1791 and women were then subordinate to their husbands.)
- A long-standing federal law prohibiting people from possessing firearms with serial numbers shaved off is unconstitutional since, per the Thomas’ legal rationale, serial numbers are not part of the “historical tradition of gun ownership.” (Serial numbers didn’t come into wide use until the late 19th century.)
- It is unconstitutional to prevent 18 to 20-year-olds from owning guns.
- It’s unconstitutional to prevent someone under indictment for a felony from buying a gun.
- It’s unconstitutional to ban carrying guns in summer camps, airports, Times Square, bars, cannabis dispensaries, theaters, stadiums, amusement parks, libraries, playgrounds, childcare programs, places serving individuals with developmental disabilities, homeless and family shelters, domestic violence shelters, and more. (Apparently there’s no historical analogy since guns weren’t banned from airports in 1791 or 1867.)
- It is unconstitutional to ban carrying guns in houses of worship since there is not a sufficient historical record that houses of worship are “sensitive places.”
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In short, standing on the shoulders of Thomas’ Bruen opinion, it is now unconstitutional to prevent an 18-year-old spousal abuser under indictment for a violent felony from packing heat with its serial number shaved off at a domestic violence center. Really?
Thank you Clarence Thomas (and the five right-wing Justices who signed his Bruen opinion) for likely getting innocent people killed and for millions of children and their parents to fear that their lives will be endangered by mass shooters when they go to school every day.
