Supreme Court overturns several concealed-carry laws, restrictions on vouchers for religious schools in final day of term
Friday, June 24th, 2022
The final day of the Supreme Court's 2021-22 term ended with the Court striking down several states' concealed-carry gun laws, overturning restrictions on using state education vouchers for religious schools, and disappointed pro-life activists by striking down Texas' "heartbeat bill" that would outlaw abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat.
In the case of
New York Firearms Association, Inc. v. Danek, a 6-3 majority of the court ruled that New York's current "may-issue" system of permits for concealed-carrying firearms was unconstitutional, saying that it violated the Second and Fourteenth Amendments . Writing for the majority, Justice Christopher Mulready wrote that the "may-issue" system in New York that "denied the right to bear arms to those without political connections, celebrity or a clear threat to their person...could not be justified by the state's obligations to protect life and maintain public safety" in current circumstances. In a concurring opinion, Justice Roberto Mendoza said that any "may-issue" system that could be upheld by the Court would require strict constitutional scrutiny to avoid disproportionately preventing ethnic and racial minority applicants from obtaining a conceal and carry permit compared to the "shall-issue" system used in most states.
Chief Justice Evelyn Baker Lang wrote the dissent, saying that the majority's finding that the circumstances did not allow New York to justify their system with the threat to public safety was incorrect, and that such a decision "invalidated a law written over a century ago and continuously upheld and updated by the New York Legislature."
The court also found in
Murray v. Eckes that state education vouchers cannot be restricted from being awarded to parents wanting to send their children to religious schools. In a 5-4 decision, the Court said that the provision in New Hampshire' state constitution that forbids the state funding of religious institutions does not apply in the case of religious education, citing the Free Exercise portion of the First Amendment. Justice Olivia Emmett Franklin wrote the dissent, saying that the majority's decision (penned again by Mulready) violated the separation of church and state, while also accepting the majority's assertion that states are not required to subsidize private education.
Finally, the Court ruled that Texas' "heartbeat bill" was an unconstitutional violation of the right to privacy, disappointing pro-life activists who felt that a court tilted in favor of conservatives would use the case to overturn the court's landmark 1973 decision
Roe v. Wade that protected the right for women to have abortions. In a 5-3 decision, Justice Judi Rand wrote that the bill, which would effectively outlaw abortion at six weeks into a pregnancy when fetal heartbeats can be detected, "fails utterly to meet the standard of fetal viability that the Court has cited...as the point when the state's interest begins to override a woman's right to privacy [on the issue of abortion]." Justice Jackson Hoyt, the longest-serving member of the Court, did not take part in the decision due to being hospitalized with pneumonia when the court heard oral arguments.
While anti-abortion activists have expressed their disappointment, the decisions in
Danek and
Murray are another illustration of the rightwards drift of the Lang Court from the first days of Chief Justice Lang's tenure thanks to former president Glen Allen Walken's appointment of three (Rand, Howard Weston and Joe Quincy) of the court's nine members. The Court will start its next term at the beginning of October.