NEW YORK – A judge in New York ordered the state to pay more than $447,000 in legal feels to the National Rifle Association (NRA) after the gun rights group was victorious on a major case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a case decided last summer, SCOTUS ruled that a New York public carry licensing law was unconstitutional, while affirming the ability to carry a pistol in public was a constitutional right guaranteed by the Second Amendment, Fox News reported.
The NRA was a party in that case — New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen — and last week a New York judge ordered the state to reimburse the organization $447,700.82 in legal fees.
“The NRA regards the $447K award in the NYSRPA V. Bruen case as a pivotal victory, a symbol that justice is definitively on our side,” Michael Jean, NRA’s director of the Office of Litigation Counsel, told Fox News Digital in a statement.
“This triumph in Bruen has fortified the Second Amendment in an unprecedented manner, and we continue our unrelenting fight to uphold our rights and challenge those who endeavor to infringe upon them,” he noted.
However, the payout “only scratches the surface” and covers “merely a third” of the group’s legal expenses, Jean added.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the SCOTUS majority opinion, “In this case, petitioners and respondents agree that ordinary, law-abiding citizens have a similar right to carry handguns publicly for their self-defense.”
“We too agree, and now hold, consistent with Heller and McDonald, that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home,” Thomas wrote referencing two previous gun cases.
“Because the State of New York issues public-carry licenses only when an applicant demonstrates a special need for self-defense, we conclude that the State’s licensing regime violates the Constitution,” he surmised.
