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On May 22, 2024, the NAM filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review a 1st Circuit decision allowing Mexico to proceed on claims attempting to hold firearms manufacturers liable for cartel violence in Mexico. In this case, the 1st Circuit reversed a District of Massachusetts decision dismissing Mexico’s tort claims against firearm manufacturers under the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act’s general prohibition of tort suits against firearms manufacturers. The 1st Circuit reversed, however, after finding Mexico’s claims exempt from the PLCAA because Mexico alleged that the defendants proximately caused it harm (expenditure of money to combat cartel violence).

We argue that the PLCAA’s proximate cause requirement incorporates traditional notions of proximate cause that have served to protect manufacturers engaged in lawful commerce of products with inherent risks from unprincipled liability. U.S. Supreme Court review of the 1st Circuit’s decision is necessary to (1) resolve the circuit split created by the 1st Circuit’s erroneous conclusion that foreseeability alone could satisfy proximate cause; (2) reaffirm that foreseeability is insufficient to establish proximate cause; and (3) ensure that no government—foreign or domestic—can use the civil justice system to regulate lawful products by imposing untenable liability costs on their continued production and sale.