October 9, 2001

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court let stand on Tuesday a ruling that dismissed a pioneering lawsuit by New Orleans seeking to hold the gun industry liable for millions of dollars for the costs of gun violence.

The justices declined without any comment or dissent to review the Louisiana Supreme Court ruling that upheld the constitutionality of a 1999 state law that retroactively blocked the city's lawsuit.

The Louisiana high court said in the April ruling the law represented a "reasonable exercise of the state's police power" and that the retroactive provision was not a constitutionally prohibited local or special law.

New Orleans, which filed the lawsuit in 1998, was the first local government in the nation to accuse the gun makers of selling unsafe products and creating a public nuisance.

The city sought to require the gun makers to repay millions of dollars it spent for the costs of gun violence, and to change how the industry designed and marketed guns.

More than 30 other cities and counties across the country brought similar lawsuits. A lower court judge in Louisiana allowed the lawsuit to proceed, declaring the 1999 law unconstitutional.

But the state Supreme Court ruled the U.S. and Louisiana Constitutions protected private citizens, not local governments, from retroactive laws.

It agreed with the gun makers that the lawsuit interfered with the state's power to regulate firearms.

Lawyers for New Orleans appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing the state Legislature violated basic constitutional principles by adopting retroactive legislation designed to protect the gun industry.

"The Founding Fathers sought to prevent precisely this sort of targeted legislation," they said, adding the law provided "special protection" for the defendants in the lawsuit.

The gun makers replied that the Louisiana Supreme Court decision was correct and urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the city's appeal.