Overview
In August 2021, the Government of Mexico brought a landmark case against Smith & Wesson Brands and other major U.S. gun manufacturers. The complaint alleged that Mexico and its citizens have been “victimized by a deadly flood of military-style and other particularly lethal guns that flows from the U.S. across the border, into criminal hands in Mexico” and that this harm was the “foreseeable result” of defendants’ actions and business practices. The Government of Mexico contended that this conduct violated state tort law and consumer protection statutes.
After the district court dismissed Mexico’s complaint in September 2022, Mexico appealed this decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. At that time, Cohen Milstein filed an amicus curiae brief in support of Mexico’s appeal before the First Circuit on behalf of senior law enforcement officers and national experts on transnational crime.
On January 26, 2024, the First Circuit reversed the lower court’s dismissal, agreeing with Mexico that its claims should proceed. However, Smith & Wesson subsequently petitioned the Supreme Court of the United States to review the First Circuit’s decision. The Court granted certiorari. On January 17, 2025, Cohen Milstein filed a second amicus curiae brief – this time before the Supreme Court – on behalf of an expanded list of amici.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments on March 4, 2025. The two following questions will be addressed:
- Whether the production and sale of firearms in the United States amounts to “aiding and abetting” illegal firearms trafficking because firearms companies allegedly know that some of their products are unlawfully trafficked.
- Whether the production and sale of firearms in the United States is the proximate cause of alleged injuries to the Mexican government stemming from violence committed by drug cartels in Mexico; and
Background of Amici & Their Argument
Amici are life-long law enforcement officers and national experts on transnational crime. They include the former head of the Mexico office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives; the only Senate-confirmed commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection; the former chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, the former chief of the Aurora Police Department and the Miami Beach Police Department; the former assistant chief of the Seattle Police Department; and the current co-director of the Policy, Security Technology, and Private Security Research and Policy Institute.
In their many years of service to the United States, Amici were responsible for understanding, identifying, and preventing crime perpetrated by transnational criminal organizations. As a result, they have an interest in this case because U.S. gun manufacturers’ practices empower transnational criminal organizations, causing tremendous violence and harm on both sides of the border, including intimidating and murdering Mexican law enforcement officers and fueling the American fentanyl epidemic.
U.S. gun manufacturers’ sales and manufacturing practices arm the transnational criminal organizations engaged in a deadly war over lucrative drug trafficking routes. Access to American-made firearms flowing across the U.S.- Mexico border at ever-increasing rates empowers these cartels. In turn, they use their power to unleash havoc in Mexico and the United States.
This status quo is not inevitable. U.S. gun manufacturers have long been aware that their practices put weapons in the hands of smugglers who traffic those weapons across the border to Mexican cartels. Given the unending supply of individuals who are either willing or forced to engage in trafficking, attempting to halt the supply of weapons at the border is not a solution. As a result, U.S. gun manufacturers are the point at which the flow of firearms into the illegal market must be stemmed. But these manufacturers have steadfastly maintained their dangerous sales and manufacturing practices despite decades of evidence and requests to change their ways.
U.S. gun manufacturers’ conduct has devastating effects on both sides of the border. Mexican cartels use their growing arsenal to terrorize the Mexican people, gain the upper hand against law enforcement, and dominate drug manufacturing and trafficking. With the firearms, Mexican cartels have taken over as the primary producer of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is now the leading cause of overdose deaths in the U.S. The ties between American guns, Mexican cartel power, and the fentanyl epidemic are clear and well-documented; indeed, numerous U.S. government agencies have identified American guns as a key catalyst of fentanyl trafficking by Mexican cartels. These ties strike at the heart of this case—a reality that Amici urged the Supreme Court to consider in reviewing the decision below.