Mexico’s lawsuit against the giants of the arms industry is experiencing critical hours. The Supreme Court of the United States accepted this Friday a request from Smith & Wesson and Interstate Arms, two of the defendant companies, to review whether the claims of the Mexican Government represent a violation of that country’s sovereignty and laws that protect gun stores. of legal disputes. A Supreme Court decision in favor of the companies would put an end to more than four years of efforts by Mexican authorities to call manufacturers to account for the wave of homicidal violence that has plagued the Latin American country for almost two decades.
The petition for the Supreme Court, with a conservative majority, to hear the case was filed last August. At the beginning of that month, the Massachusetts court where Mexico filed the lawsuit in 2021 decided that it was not admissible against six of the eight companies initially sued, arguing that that court did not have jurisdiction to resolve the matter. Mexico blames the companies for negligent business practices and facilitating access to their products to criminal groups, for which it demands compensation in the order of billions of dollars. Mexican authorities assured that tens of thousands of weapons are trafficked each year from the United States, between 70% and 90% of the rifles in the country.
The two remaining companies, Smith & Wesson and the Interstate Arms store, filed the request arguing that litigation and eventual repair of the damage would leave them practically bankrupt. “Leading members of the US arms industry are facing years of costly litigation and a specter of debt that would destroy their businesses,” the brief reads. Gun stores defend that they are protected by the Protection of Legal Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), a regulation promoted during the George W. Bush Administration, which protects companies from any claim that reaches the courts under the argument of national security. “Congress made clear with PLCAA that this type of legal war against any member of the law-abiding gun industry has no place in American courts and should be dismissed immediately,” they note.
Mexico maintained that the Supreme Court should not intervene until the Massachusetts Court definitively resolved a series of issues that remain pending, such as the defendants’ own request to dismiss the case. The High Court, however, did accept the armories’ request for processing. The rulings of the Supreme Court are unappealable. There is no other instance to which Mexico can go to reverse an unfavorable decision.
This is not the first setback that the Mexican Government has received in the case. Mexico’s legal battle has advanced against all odds, although it has been marked by ups and downs. The same Massachusetts court had already dismissed the lawsuit in October 2022. The federal judge handling the case, Dennis Saylor, assured in his ruling that the court had “empathy for Mexicans,” but added that the court took into account the legal shield that PLCAA gave to gun stores. Mexican authorities challenged the ruling in an Appeals Court and won in January of this year. That court affirmed that Mexico did have the right to sue, despite the supposed immunity enjoyed by gun stores since the damages claimed occurred outside of United States territory. The Latin American country also chose to open other fronts in its judicial offensive and filed another lawsuit in Arizona at the end of 2022 against five weapons distributors. This process is on a separate track, although a Supreme Court ruling against it could set a legal precedent for other cases against the arms industry.
Mexico’s demands are unprecedented. Despite the initial skepticism since the matter has not reached trial, the case has gained ground in the United States and has been supported by civil organizations, prosecutors and politicians, mostly from the Democratic Party, as well as other foreign governments. It has also been an important diplomatic resource for the country at the negotiating table with the United States, to mitigate Washington’s historical claims on migration and the fight against organized crime. Despite the arrival of Claudia Sheinbaum to the presidency this week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made it clear that this is a matter of State and that the legal battle in the US courts will continue in the new Government. The matter has reached the top of the United States legal system and it will be the Supreme Court that will decide the future of the case in Massachusetts.
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