Interesting Legal Strategy

As you may be aware, the 2005 "Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act" indemnifies firearm manufacturers and dealers against most civil liability.

However, there is a carve out in the law for when manufacturers or dealers are knowingly violating laws.

Mexico is arguing that gun manufacturers and border adjacent gun dealers have knowingly colluded to violate Mexico's gun laws, which are among the most restrictive in the world.

This is now at the Supreme Court, where I expect the rule 6-3, or perhaps 5-4, in favor of the criminal merchants of death. 

Still, this is an interesting approach:

Mexico’s president offered a warning last month in response to news that the Trump administration planned to designate drug cartels as terrorist groups.

“If they declare these criminal groups as terrorists, then we’ll have to expand our U.S. lawsuit,” Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president, said at a news conference.

She was referring to an unusual lawsuit that will be heard by the Supreme Court on Tuesday in which Mexico argues U.S. gun manufacturers have aided in the trafficking of weapons used by the cartels.

………

Lawyers for Mexico argue that U.S. manufacturers and gun dealers are complicit in what they call an “iron river” of firearms pouring into the country and arming cartels. They point to strict controls on gun purchases in Mexico, where civilians are not allowed to purchase the types of rapid-fire, powerful military-style weapons favored by the cartels, as evidence that as many as half a million firearms are smuggled from the United States into Mexico each year.

The Mexican government has an unfair advantage in their lawsuit, because their argument is the truth.

………

The case may be viewed skeptically by the Supreme Court, where the 6-to-3 conservative supermajority has worked to expand gun rights. But at a time when Mr. Trump has targeted the country, it has offered a forum for Mexico to publicize its counter case that U.S. gun manufacturers share the blame for cartel violence. The Mexican government has also sued several gun stores in Arizona and could expand the effort by filing additional suits.

MAY be viewed "skeptically"?  Naah, at least 4 of these judges are hostile to the very idea of gun control.

………

Mexico first sued multiple gun companies in 2021, arguing that the cartel bloodshed was “the foreseeable result of the defendants’ deliberate actions and business practices.”

A trial court judge dismissed the case, finding it was barred by a 2005 federal law that limits litigation against gun manufacturers and distributors and has provided immunity from actions brought by the families of people killed and injured by their weapons.

A unanimous panel of judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, in Boston, overturned that decision. They found that the lawsuit met the criteria for a part of the law allowing for litigation in cases where knowing violations of firearms laws are a direct cause of the plaintiff’s injuries.

I hope that Mexico wins at the Supreme Court, but I'm not holding my breath.