Conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's new opinions on gun control law suggest he is “feeling pressured,” legal analyst Harry Litman wrote on social media Friday.
The Supreme Court on Friday ruled 6-3 in Garland v. Cargill, striking down a Trump-era ban on bump stocks, a gun accessory that allows AR-15-style rifles to fire automatically.
Justice Alito, who voted against the ban with the court's five other conservative justices, explained his decision in a concurring opinion that “there is no other way to interpret the statute's language.”
The conservative justices added: “There's a simple solution to the difference in treatment between bump stocks and machine guns: Congress can change the law. If the ATF had done so, it might have done so already. [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] “We have stuck to our previous interpretation. Now that the situation is clear, Congress can act.”
The court's three liberal members dissented.
Litman, a senior legal columnist for the Los Angeles Times and a former assistant attorney general, called Alito's opinion “interesting” in a Friday post on Twitter's former name, X.
“Basically he's saying the Las Vegas massacre was a tragedy, but only Congress can fix it. That's my version of, 'I feel your pain,' 'Don't hate me,' kind of opinion,” Alito said. [Conservative Supreme Court Justice Brett] “It's Kavanaugh, not Alito. He may be feeling the pressure,” he wrote.
Newsweek reached out to analysts for comment via an online form for Litman's podcast, “Talking Feds,” and to Alito for comment via the Supreme Court's online form.
An interesting concurring opinion today by Justice Alito in the bump stock case basically said that the Las Vegas massacre was a tragedy, but only Congress can fix it. This is the kind of “I feel your pain” and “don't hate me” opinion that I associate with Justice Kavanaugh, not Justice Alito. Maybe he's feeling the pressure.
— Harry Litman (@harrylitman) June 14, 2024
Garland v. Cargill was a lawsuit over a bump stock ban that was imposed after the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, in which a gunman fired more than 1,000 rounds into a crowd at a country music festival in 11 minutes, killing 60 people and injuring hundreds.
Texas gun shop owner Michael Cargill challenged the ban, arguing that the ATF exceeded its authority by classifying bump stocks as machine guns.
Under the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the ATF maintained that bump stocks, invented in the early 2000s, don't turn semi-automatic rifles into machine guns, but reversed that position at Trump's urging following the Las Vegas massacre and another mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead in 2018.
It's unclear why Lito thought he was “feeling pressured” by X's post, but easy access to assault rifles has become a hot topic at a time when gun violence, including mass shootings, is plaguing the US. So far this year, there have been 7,625 gun deaths in the US, 216 of which have been mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that tracks gun violence in the US.
Meanwhile, Alito has also recently faced criticism in an unrelated case that occurred just days after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
In May, The New York Times published a photo of an upside-down American flag taken on January 17, 2021, outside Alito's Virginia home.
The upside-down flag came 11 days after supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's 2020 presidential election victory. The riot erupted after Trump claimed, without evidence, that the election was stolen through widespread voter fraud. Many Trump supporters raised the upside-down American flag as a sign of protest following his loss in the 2020 presidential election.
Justice Alito told the Times that he had “no involvement in raising the flag” and that his wife had “briefly” flown the upside-down flag “in response to a neighbor's use of offensive and personally offensive language on a yard sign.”
There have been calls for Justice Alito to recuse himself from any litigation involving Trump and the Capitol storming. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has yet to rule on Trump's claim of presidential immunity. Trump has been charged with four federal felony counts for his actions in the Capitol storming. He has pleaded not guilty and claims the case is politically motivated because he is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. In April, the Supreme Court heard arguments on Trump's claim that he was immune from prosecution because he was still president at the time of the riot.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is pictured in Washington, DC on Oct. 7, 2022. Alito's new opinion on gun control laws suggests he's “feeling pressured,” legal analyst Harry Litman said on social media on Friday. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is pictured in Washington, DC on Oct. 7, 2022. Alito's new opinion on gun control laws suggests he's “feeling pressured,” legal analyst Harry Litman said on social media on Friday. Details: Alex Wong/Getty Images
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