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Investing.com -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit by Mexico’s government against two American gun companies, Smith & Wesson and Interstate Arms. The lawsuit accused the companies of aiding illegal firearms trafficking to Mexican drug cartels and contributing to gun violence in Mexico. The unanimous 9-0 ruling overturned a previous decision by a lower court that had allowed the lawsuit to proceed.
Mexico’s lawsuit, filed in Boston in 2021, claimed that the companies violated various U.S. and Mexican laws. The government argued that the companies knowingly maintained a distribution system that included firearm dealers selling weapons to third-party purchasers, who then trafficked these guns to cartels in Mexico. The suit also alleged that the companies marketed their guns as military-grade weapons to increase demand among the cartels.
In response, the gun companies argued that they manufacture and sell lawful products. They called for the dismissal of the lawsuit under the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, a U.S. law from 2005 that generally protects gun companies from liability for crimes committed with their products. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had decided in 2024 that the alleged conduct by the companies fell outside these protections.
However, the Supreme Court disagreed with the lower court’s findings. "Mexico alleges that the companies aided and abetted unlawful sales routing guns to Mexican drug cartels. The question presented is whether Mexico’s complaint plausibly pleads that conduct. We conclude it does not," Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court.
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