A New York judge recently ordered the state of New York to pay the NRA nearly half a million dollars in legal fees following the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association (NYSRPA) v. Bruen (2022).
“The NRA regards the $447K award in the NYSRPA V. Bruen case as a pivotal victory, a symbol that justice is definitively on our side,” Michael Jean, NRA director of the Office of Litigation Counsel, told Fox News Digital. “This triumph in Bruen has fortified the Second Amendment in an unprecedented manner, and we continue our unrelenting fight to uphold our rights and challenge those who endeavor to infringe upon them.”
In Bruen, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that the right to bear arms does not stop at a person’s front door. This ruling was the result of plaintiffs challenging New York’s may-issue licensing regime.
“It is undisputed that petitioners Koch and Nash—two ordinary, law-abiding, adult citizens—are part of ‘the people’ whom the Second Amendment protects. And no party disputes that handguns are weapons ‘in common use’ today for self-defense. The Court has little difficulty concluding also that the plain text of the Second Amendment protects Koch’s and Nash’s proposed course of conduct—carrying handguns publicly for self-defense,” wrote Justice Clarence Thomas in the majority opinion.
For a detailed breakdown, Stephen P. Halbrook, who has argued Second Amendment cases at the highest level, penned a piece for America’s 1st Freedom.
Just over a year later, Bruen is having wide-ranging effects. Among the most-notable are the striking down of may-issue licensing policies; however, anti-freedom states like New York are repeatedly enacting new restrictions in spite of the high court’s ruling. The NRA will continue to fight these unconstitutional responses to the Bruen decision, as well as other unconstitutional laws, on behalf of Americans who understand and embrace freedom.
Jean made a point of extending gratitude to the “devoted NRA members” who funded the majority of the legal fees incurred in Bruen, noting that the payment ordered by the New York judge “only scratches the surface” of NRA’s expenses.
