President Trump has imposed tariffs on Mexico, and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is working with the U.S. to take on cartels and fentanyl. Mexico has also launched a lawsuit to hold American gunmakers legally responsible for their weapons being smuggled into the country and contributing to cartel violence. (Reuters)
"Your theory of aiding and abetting liability would have destructive effects on the American economy," said Justice Brett Kavanaugh. "Lots of sellers and manufacturers of ordinary products know that they're going to be misused by some subset of people. They know that to a certainty, that it's going to be pharmaceuticals, cars, what you can name, lots of products. So that's a real concern."
The case comes to the high court during a delicate time for both countries, politically and diplomatically.
The Trump administration has pushed the Mexican government to better patrol its border to block drugs and migrants from entering the United States, while Mexican officials have demanded the U.S. stop military-style firearms from ending up in Mexico – fueling the very drug crisis both sides seek to end.
The public session arguments provide a high-profile American forum for Mexico and its complaints about its northern neighbor, just as the U.S. on Tuesday launched historic tariffs on Mexican imports.
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The case could also affect the broader national debate over competing rights contained in the Second Amendment.
A 2005 federal law known as the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) was designed to shield gunmakers from civil suits when their products were criminally misused by others. But Mexico is relying on exceptions in the law to pursue its claims.
Families of gun violence, like the parents of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, have since still tried to file such claims, but this will be the first time the Supreme Court will rule on its limits.
Those families reached a $73 million out-of-court settlement with gunmaker Remington.
Mexico's complaint alleges that 2% of the guns manufactured in the United States are smuggled into Mexico. (Yuri Cortez/AFP via Getty Images)
Two weeks ago, the Trump administration designated six Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
Much of the oral arguments centered on whether gunmakers could be sued on the "proximate case" standard, when the complex commerce pipeline goes from them to wholesalers, distributors, rogue retail dealers, straw purchasers, smugglers, and then to Mexican cartels themselves.
"You haven't sued any of the retailers that were the most proximate cause of the harm," Justice Amy Coney Barrett told Catherine Stetson, lawyer for Mexico. "And you haven't identified them that I can tell in the complaint."
"All of the things that you asked for in this lawsuit would amount to different kinds of regulatory constraints that I'm thinking Congress didn't want the courts to be the ones to impose," said Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, when it came to such remedies as gun distribution and marketing practices.
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But some on the court suggested the scope of the problem Mexico alleges has real consequences.
"The complaint says that 2% of the guns manufactured in the United States find their way into Mexico," asked Chief Justice John Roberts of the gunmakers' attorney Noel Francisco. "And I know you dispute that, but is there a number where your legal analysis might have to be altered – if it's 10%, if it's 20%? At some point, the proximate cause lines that you draw really can't bear the weight of the ultimate result."
The case is Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos (23-1141). A ruling is expected by late June.
Shannon Bream currently serves as anchor of FOX News Sunday. She joined the network in 2007 as a Washington D.C- based correspondent covering the Supreme Court.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/supreme-court-appears-skeptical-mexico-lawsuit-against-american-gunmakers