Supreme Court Grills Mexico Over Its $10 Billion Lawsuit Against US Gun Manufacturers; Supreme Court Gravitates Toward Gun Industry In Bid to End Mexico Lawsuit

Supreme Court grills Mexico over its $10 billion lawsuit against US gun manufacturers:

The US Supreme Court’s justices Tuesday grilled the Mexican government over whether it should be allowed to pursue its $10 billion lawsuit against US gun manufacturers for allegedly helping to arm cartels.

Mexico slapped the lawsuit against multiple American gunmakers as well as a distributor in 2021, claiming they are partly to blame for the firearms that illegally flow to the drug cartels in the US’s southern neighbor, thus helping to inflict mass carnage on the country, by knowingly peddling to straw men.

“No case in history supports that theory,” argued Noel Francisco, the lawyer representing firearm manufacturer Smith & Wesson Brands, to the justices during Tuesday’s oral arguments.

“Indeed, if Mexico is right, then every law enforcement organization in America has missed the largest criminal conspiracy in history operating right under their nose, and Budweiser is liable for every accident caused by underage drinkers,” the defense lawyer said.

The case comes amid inflamed tensions between the US and Mexico as President Trump’s 25% across-the-board tariff targeting Mexican goods takes effect.

The high court does not have to grapple with the question of whether US gun manufacturers are liable for Mexico’s complaints, only whether a lower court ruling was correct in allowing Smith & Wesson v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos to proceed on its merits.

The Supreme Court is expected to hand down its decision by June.

Lawyers on both sides of the case are battling over the US Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which provides liability protection against gun manufacturers.

Mexico’s team highlighted an exemption in that law enabling lawsuits to move ahead if a company “knowingly violated” the law.

Mexico says some US gun manufacturers unfairly lure Mexican buyers with items such as pistol with an image of the country’s revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata — and peddle the firearms through straw men who then funnel them to cartels.

But Francisco on Tuesday pointed to court precedent in the 2023 case of Twitter v. Taamneh, in which the social media platform was not liable for aiding and abetting terrorist attacks because there was a lack of evidence that it knowingly helped ISIS. —>READ MORE HERE

Supreme Court gravitates toward gun industry in bid to end Mexico lawsuit:

The Supreme Court gravitated toward the American firearm industry Tuesday in its fight to end a $10 billion lawsuit brought by the Mexican government over claims the gunmakers are fueling cartel violence.

The case has become a major battle over the scope of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), which has provided broad immunity to gunmakers for two decades despite gun control activists’ attempt to repeal it.

At oral arguments Tuesday, the justices posed piercing questions to Mexico’s attorney about claims the country’s lawsuit falls under an exception to the 2005 law, raising concerns that accepting that position would cause a flood of litigation against the gun industry.

“How is your suit different from the types of suits that prompted the passage of PLCAA?” Justice Clarence Thomas asked.

It wasn’t only the court’s conservatives, like Thomas, who pressed Mexico.

“I’m just wondering whether the PLCAA statute itself is telling us that we don’t want the courts to be the ones to be crafting remedies that amount to regulation on this industry. That was really the point of the entire thing,” said Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, one of the court’s three Democratic appointees.

“And so to the extent that we’re now reading an exception to allow the very thing that the statute seems to preclude, I’m concerned about that,” she continued.

Mexico originally sued seven American firearms manufacturers and one wholesaler in 2021, alleging they aided and abetted violence in Mexico by not doing more stop their guns from falling into cartels’ hands. Most of the companies have since been dismissed from the lawsuit on other grounds, but two remain.

The companies appealed to the justices after a lower court found Mexico’s lawsuit is covered by a narrow exception to PLCAA, which permits lawsuits when a company “knowingly violated” firearms laws and the violation proximately harmed the plaintiff. —>READ MORE HERE

Source

Jesus Christ is King