The NAM joined with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in an amicus brief 8/22/05 urging the Supreme Court to review a decision of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals upholding D.C.’s automatic liability statute. The law provides that a manufacturer (of certain guns) is strictly liable, “without regard to fault or proof of defect, for all direct and consequential damages that arise from bodily injury or death” if the injury results from use of the product in the District. Our brief argued that this law is unconstitutional because it interferes with interstate commerce. It imposes liability without fault, and it necessarily applies only to out-of-state products that are illegally transported into the District and used in the commission of a crime. The only way for a manufacturer to avoid this virtually unlimited liability is not to make the product. The D.C. law would allow one state to make it unprofitable to conduct business in another state, or could create a complex patchwork of state regulations that would inhibit the ability to conduct business nationwide.On 10/3/05, the Supreme Court refused to hear this appeal. Subsequently, the President signed on 10/26/05 the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which protects gun manufacturers from liability for the criminal misuse of their products. The new law resulted in dismissal of this case in the Superior Court, and affirmance of that dismissal by the D.C. Court of Appeals on 1/10/2008.