Justice Thomas is 74 today.
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First opinion just released.
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Gorsuch adds that "a presumption of adequate representation" i.e., that the legislators don't need to intervene because the AG is already in the case "is inappropriate when a duly authorized state agent seeks to intervene to defend a state law."
This case, Gorsuch says, shows "how divided state governments sometimes warrant participation by multiple state officials in federal court."
The legislators, Gorsuch continues, have different interests to represent than the state AG, Josh Stein.
The underlying litigation in this case is a challenge by the North Carolina NAACP, which argues that the state's voter-ID law violates the Voting Rights Act. Today's opinion doesn't resolve that issue. As Amy explains, it's just about who gets to participate in the defense of the law.
The Court holds in Vega v. Tekoh that a violation of Miranda v. Arizona does not provide a basis for a federal civil rights claim under Section 1983.
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The court rejects the "two-part" approach used by the courts of appeals in Second Amendment cases. "In keeping with Heller," Thomas writes, "we hold that when the Second Amendment's plain text covers an individual's conduct, the Constitution presumptively protects that conduct."
The government will have to show, Thomas says, that a gun regulation "is consistent with this Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation."
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The court holds that New York's "proper-cause" requirement to obtain a concealed-carry license violates the Constitution by preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in public for self-defense.
Thomas says in the intro that the court is holding "that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individual's right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home.
The New York "proper cause" requirement violates the Constitution, Thomas explains, because it only allows public-carry licenses when an applicant shows a special need for self-defense.