McConnell Tells Supreme Court Not to Be ‘Cowed’ by Democrats on Guns
McConnell Tells Supreme Court Not to Be ‘Cowed’ by Democrats on Guns
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senate Republicans accused five Democratic colleagues of threatening the Supreme Court with political retribution in an extraordinary clash over what is set to be the court’s first case on gun rights in a decade.
In a letter to the court that used language normally reserved for the political arena, the 53 Republicans said the Democrats were threatening to add additional justices to the court if it doesn’t drop the gun-rights case as moot.
“The implication is as plain as day: Dismiss this case, or we’ll pack the court,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his 52 Republican colleagues said in the letter Thursday. Expanding the nine-member court is an idea some Democratic presidential candidates have proposed on the campaign trail.
The letter was a response to an unusually pointed brief filed Aug. 12 by Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and four colleagues. The group said the court would undermine its own legitimacy if it ruled in the Second Amendment case, which centers on New York City gun-transportation restrictions that the city has now lifted.
“The Supreme Court is not well,” Whitehouse wrote. “And the people know it. Perhaps the court can heal itself before the public demands it be restructured in order to reduce the influence of politics. Particularly on the urgent issue of gun control, a nation desperately needs it to heal.”
The city’s rules sharply limited where licensed handguns could be taken while locked and unloaded. The court in January agreed to hear an appeal by three handgun owners who said the regulations were the most extreme firearm-transportation restrictions in the country.
But then the city loosened its rules -- and said the case should be dismissed because there was nothing left for the court to decide. Gun-rights advocates say the city’s move was a transparent effort to avoid a ruling that would bolster the right to bear arms nationwide.
The justices are scheduled to discuss how to handle the case at their private Oct. 1 conference. If they move forward with the case, a ruling would likely come next year in the heat of the presidential campaign.
The Supreme Court hasn’t heard a Second Amendment case since it threw out a Chicago handgun ban in 2010. Two years earlier, the justices ruled for the first time that the Constitution protects individual firearm rights.
The Republicans said they weren’t taking a position on whether the court should dismiss the case as moot. But they said the justices “must not be cowed by the threats of opportunistic politicians.”
The Democrats’ brief pointed to the millions of dollars spent by outside groups on recent Supreme Court battles. President Donald Trump’s two appointees, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, were confirmed on nearly party-line votes.
“The response to our brief from Republicans and the partisan donor interests driving the court’s polarization shows exactly why it’s time to speak out,” Whitehouse said in an emailed statement Thursday. “They want us to shut up about their capture of the court; we will not.”
Joining Whitehouse on the brief were Democratic Senators Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Dick Durbin of Illinois and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.
To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo
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