Noah Feldman, Columnist

Gun Case Forces Supreme Court to Confront Its Own Illogic

The incoherent 2022 Bruen ruling will haunt the courts — and US streets — until the justices see the error of their ways and overturn it.

November 8, 2023 at 2:00 PM UTC

By Noah Feldman

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

Not the 18th century.
Photographer: Alex Wong/Getty Images North America

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

The good news is that the US Supreme Court seems poised to reverse a Fifth Circuit decision that said police can’t confiscate guns from domestic abusers. The bad news is that the high court’s 2022 Bruen decision, which guided the lower court’s ruling, remains firmly in place.

Bruen is among the worst-reasoned Supreme Court decisions in recent memory. And even after the justices rule on the case currently before them, Bruen’s precedent will still be difficult for lower courts to apply given the decision’s confused logic.