The city of New York is apparently going to change the law at issue in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. City of New York in another effort to render the case moot. The Court isn’t likely to fall for such a transparent dodge.
(New York City’s) proposed changes, likely to take effect in a month or so, would remove those restrictions. Whether they would also end the case is another matter.
Until the Supreme Court agreed to hear the dispute, the city had defended the regulation vigorously and successfully, winning in two lower courts. In inviting public comment on the proposed changes, the Police Department said it continued to believe the regulation “furthers and important public-safety interest.”
Still, the city seems determined to give the plaintiffs — three city residents and the New York State Rifle and Pistol Assocition — everything they had sued for. The plaintiffs, in turn, do not seem to want to take yes for an answer.
– Adam Liptak in Fearing Supreme Court Loss, New York Tries to Make Gun Case Vanish