The Supreme Court during oral arguments Tuesday appeared ready to rule against the Mexican government’s attempt to hold U.S. gun manufacturers liable for cartel violence in Mexico caused by guns purchased in the United States.
Multiple justices questioned whether Mexico’s lawsuit seeking $10 billion in damages ran afoul of a 2005 law that restricts the legal challenges that can be brought against gunmakers, and whether gunmakers can be held responsible for the allegedly illegal actions of their customers.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pointed out that when Congress passed the 2005 law, known as the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, they intended to make certain that Congress, not the courts, regulated firearms.
Jackson said that the Mexican government had requested relief, such as ordering changes to gun marketing and distribution, that went beyond the $10 billion damage award.
“All of the things that you ask for in this lawsuit would amount to different kinds of regulatory constraints that I can’t imagine that Congress wanted the courts to impose,” Jackson said to Catherine Stetson, the attorney representing Mexico.
Stetson argued that the gunmakers’ conduct fell under an exception in the law because they “aided and abetted” illegal sales. That included marketing guns that cartels found attractive and selling to distributors who then sold to dealers who facilitated straw purchases.
Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh pointed out that Mexico’s argument of the harm caused by the gunmakers could cause “destructive effects” on the American economy. Allowing suits because a manufacturer knows their products could be misused would be a change from current law, he said.
“That is a real concern for me,” Kavanaugh said.
In the lawsuit, first filed in 2021, the Mexican government accused Smith & Wesson and other gunmakers of deliberately feeding a pipeline of distributors and dealers who sell guns used in cartel violence.
Initially, a federal district court judge ruled that the 2005 law barred the suit, but a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit revived the case in 2024.
The lawyer for Smith & Wesson, Noel Francisco, said that allowing Mexico’s suit would “revive exactly the same type” of lawsuit Congress intended to limit when it passed the 2005 law that sought to insulate gunmakers from the consequences of legal sales.
The flow of illegal guns to Mexico has been an ongoing issue, and President Gloria Sheinbaum said last month that President Donald Trump had agreed to take steps to slow the flow of guns into the country.
The case is Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos.
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