Sen. Cruz Leads 24 Republican Senators on Amicus Brief Protecting Americans’ Second Amendment Rights

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, today led 24 other Republican senators in filing an amicus brief for New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, a case currently pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. The brief argues that New York's laws making it extremely difficult to carry a firearm outside the home violates the Second Amendment's guarantee of the right to bear arms. The brief emphasizes that by including the right to bear arms in the Constitution, the Framers made a policy choice and explicitly removed from state and federal legislators the ability to second guess that choice.

Co-signers of Sen. Cruz's amicus brief include U.S. Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).

In the brief, the senators wrote:

"[L]egislators-whether in Albany or Washington, D.C.-have neither the power nor the authority to second-guess the policy judgments made by the Framers and enshrined in the Constitution."

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"The Framer's "decision to guarantee the right of the people to keep and bear arms after weighing all the policy considerations is definitive."

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"The danger associated with firearms "was never obscure, [and] was very much part of the reason law-abiding citizens needed arms for protection from others with arms."

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"[E]lected officials swear to support and defend the Constitution, and so must respect when the Framers took a decision out of their hands. The Second Amendment's guarantee of the right to keep and bear arms cannot be second-guessed by legislators across the country who simply disagree with the choice the Framers made."

Read the full text of the amicus brief here.

Fox News: Cruz and 24 Senate Republicans file amicus brief defending Second Amendment right to carry
"EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Ted Cruz and two dozen Senate Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, filed an amicus brief Tuesday in a Second Amendment case the Supreme Court is set to hear this fall, arguing that New York gun law violates the right to bear arms under the Constitution. Cruz and his GOP colleagues filed a brief in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which the Supreme Court granted cert for in April. The high court, in its October 2021 term, is set to consider whether the Second Amendment allows the government to prohibit ordinary law-abiding citizens from carrying handguns outside the home for self-defense. New York law prohibits carrying a firearm outside the home without a license and then makes it extremely difficult to get a license. New York requires people to show cause why they should get a license. The Republican senators argued that the New York law violates the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment, arguing that the point of including this right in the Constitution was so that the decision would be taken out of the hands of state and federal legislators. ‘Legislators-whether in Albany or Washington D.C.-have neither the power nor the authority to second-guess the policy judgments made by the Framers and enshrined in the Constitution,' Cruz and his Republican colleagues wrote in the amicus brief."

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