Noah Feldman, Columnist

Remington’s Sandy Hook Dilemma: Settle or Fight On

The Supreme Court didn’t stop a lawsuit against the gun manufacturer. Now it has to weigh the risks of going to court versus cutting a deal.

November 19, 2019 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."

A new chapter in gun liability.
Photographer: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

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The U.S. Supreme Court last week allowed a lawsuit against Remington Arms Co. by families of victims in the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting to go forward, despite a federal law that on its face seemed to block the suit.

That raises a challenging question for the manufacturer of the XM15-E2S weapon that gunman Adam Lanza used to kill 20 children and six adults in Newtown, Connecticut, back in 2012. Should Remington now fight the case in state court, arguing to a judge and jury that it shouldn’t be held liable under state and federal law? Or should it settle the case and hope that other states don’t follow Connecticut in interpreting federal law to allow for such lawsuits?