Supreme Court Won’t Intervene In Connecticut Gunmaker Case, For Now

By Walter Olson Walter Olson

Without comment or dissent, the Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down a certiorari petition asking it to review a suit against gunmaker Remington over the Sandy Hook massacre, thus allowing the suit to proceed for now. The current suit, as green-lighted by the Connecticut Supreme Court earlier this year over a dissent from three of its seven justices, claims that Remington violated the broad provisions on deceptive marketing of a state unfair-trade-practices law, the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act (CUTPA). It should be emphasized that the case is still at an early stage and that the Justices will probably be presented with further opportunities to pronounce on its compatibility with the federal law that pre-empts most gun suits, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). For example, some Justices might see PLCAA as pre-empting some but not other claims under the state trade-practices law, and await further factual clarification that could bring the incompatibility into sharper focus.

For now, the Court will not engage with the arguments made in the amicus brief by Cato and others that courts should give PLCAA a fair interpretation to prevent it from being a dead letter. The brief, …Read the Rest

Source:: Cato Institute