The conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday took up its biggest gun rights case in a nearly decade, agreeing to hear a challenge backed by the influential National Rifle Association lobby group to New York City's strict limits on handgun owners transporting their firearms outside of the home.
The nine justices will review a 2018 lower court ruling upholding the city's restrictions after three gun owners and the NRA's New York state affiliate sued claiming the regulations violated the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment right to 'keep and bear arms.'
The case will be heard and decided in the court's next term, which starts in October and ends in June 2020.
The decision indicates a new interest on the court, where conservatives hold a 5-4 margin, on guns and is the first major gun case to come before the justices since 2010.
First review: The court's conservative wing has been bolstered in the past two years by President Donald Trump's appointment of two justices, Neil Gorsuch (top left) and Brett Kavanaugh (top right)
Allowed on the range: New York City allows holders of 'premises licenses' to take their handguns unloaded to ranges in the city but no further afield. The Supreme Court will weigh a challenge to the restriction
The court's conservative wing has been bolstered in the past two years by President Donald Trump's appointment of two justices, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh last year replaced Justice Anthony Kennedy, a conservative who sometimes sided with the court's liberals on high-profile social issues.
The Supreme Court has not taken up a major firearms case since issuing important
