What Threatens The 1st, Threatens The 2nd
Last year, the United States Supreme Court struck down a New York law that would have required citizens to show “proper cause” before they’d be allowed to legally carry a gun. In that decision, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the Court set out a rigorous test for whether a gun regulation is consistent with the Second Amendment. Under Bruen, firearm regulations are permissible only if consistent with the “historical tradition” of the right to keep and bear arms.
Several states notoriously hostile to gun rights, such as New York and New Jersey, quickly moved to enact legislation to limit the impact of Bruen within their borders. Among other things, both states’ laws prohibit carrying firearms in “sensitive locations,” and reverse the presumption of how and when an individual may carry a concealed firearm on private property. New York’s bill was challenged as quickly as it was passed, and several parts of the law were recently blocked. And last week, a federal district court temporarily blocked several parts of New Jersey’s bill. Both courts held, correctly, that these regulations are unlikely to survive Bruen’s stringent historical test for Second Amendment rights.
But these laws infringe on another constitutional right, one whose encroachment may not be as obvious at first glance: the First Amendment right against compelled speech.
Read the rest of the article: https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/01/how-limiting-the-second-amendment-can-also-threaten-the-first/