‘BIGGER THAN HELLER’ — The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision today to strike down New York’s century-old gun law was “probably the most significant expansion of gun rights from the Supreme Court in the country’s history,” says Michael Waldman, the author of “The Second Amendment: A Biography,” which was cited in Justice Stephen Breyer’s dissent, and the president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law.

The decision stripped local officials of broad authority to deny permits to gun owners who want to carry weapons outside of their home for almost any reason. The ruling is also set to nullify laws in a handful of other states that have similarly strong concealed-carry licensing laws.

To break down the ruling’s impact, Nightly called Waldman. This conversation has been edited.

I think your initial reaction on Twitter","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://twitter.com/mawaldman/status/1539987121221603333","_id":"00000181-95ec-d7f9-a1a9-bdefd7820006","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000181-95ec-d7f9-a1a9-bdefd7820007","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}">reaction on Twitter really captured how big of a deal you feel this is. 

In its practical impact, it will be bigger than Heller. And it’s not just the New York law, but what it does and will do to gun laws of all kinds, all across the country.

What it really means is that the NRA and gun rights advocates will be in court tomorrow, challenging hundreds of gun laws all across the United States.

It will be very hard for states and cities and Congress to know what is allowed right now. What kind of regulation of firearms is even constitutional? The court did not offer clarity here.

Are there particular regulations that you see as now at risk? 

Any kind of gun regulation can be challenged now. If you look at what kinds of things were upheld in the past decade, there were bans on assault weapons, there were background check requirements, there were restrictions on magazines and ammunition. Anything that states did in the last 12 years, which was upheld by the courts — federal courts and state courts upheld about 90 percent of the gun laws that were challenged since they said: “Yes, it’s an individual right, we’re taking that right very seriously. We’re balancing it against public safety.” And 90 percent of the time they were upheld.

Clarence Thomas and the other Supreme Court justices have now said: “You all did it wrong. You’re not supposed to weigh public safety in that way. You’re supposed to look for analogies in history.”

So more legal challenges for existing gun laws are coming because of today’s ruling?

There are going to be dozens of lawsuits challenging existing laws. Judges are going to scratch their heads and try to figure out what history and tradition means in this context. This was a 100-year-old law. That sounds like history and tradition to me.

It will be much harder for states and cities and even the federal government to know what they’re allowed to do.

How will gun safety advocates respond to this ruling? 

Because New York doesn’t allow the concealed carrying of these weapons, but now will have to in some respects allow it, they can and will try to limit the carrying of those weapons from sensitive places — like the subway, like schools, like Times Square. I’m sure they will look at what kind of requirements for getting a license — training, background checks, insurance, that kind of thing — since now, many more people will have access to these licenses.

Are you at all concerned about the constitutionality of the gun legislation senators are working to pass in Congress? 

I don’t know that there’s any concern. It’s just that it was clearly constitutional yesterday. Now they’re going to have to look at it again.

Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at [email protected]. Or contact tonight’s author at [email protected] or on Twitter at @MyahWard.

— Jan. 6 hearing reveals multiple House Republicans sought pardons after Capitol riot: Days after Jan. 6, 2021, Republican lawmakers who strategized with former President Donald Trump asked top White House officials to help arrange for pardons, according to testimony released today by the select panel investigating the Capitol attack. Several top Trump White House aides at the time described outreach from several lawmakers seeking clemency: Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). Additionally, according to the former Trump aides’ testimony, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) sent an email on Jan. 11, 2021, asking for “all-purpose” pardons for every lawmaker who objected to electoral votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania.

— New York lawmakers scramble to counteract SCOTUS gun ruling: Minutes after the release of the opinion, Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed to call state lawmakers back into session, and City Council announced it would pass a resolution seeking Albany’s help. Broad plans include tightening the firearm-permitting process, empowering private businesses to ban weapons and deeming swaths of the state gun-free zones.

— DOJ searches home of ex-official who aided alleged pro-Trump ‘coup’: Law enforcement officials searched the Virginia home of former top Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, according to his employer and former Trump administration colleague. Russ Vought, who served as Trump’s White House budget director and now works with Clark at the Center for Renewing America, tweeted that on Wednesday “more than a dozen DOJ law enforcement officials searched Jeff Clark’s house in a pre dawn raid, put him in the streets in his pjs, and took his electronic devices.”

— Senate clears major hurdle toward passing gun safety bill: The Senate took a critical step today on the bipartisan gun safety legislation, clearing the way for a passage vote no later than the end of the week. In a 65-34 vote, 15 Republicans joined all Senate Democrats in moving forward. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Senate could pass the final bill as soon as today with GOP cooperation.

— Republicans launch super PAC to stop Greitens in Missouri: The group, called Show Me Values, is set to start running TV advertisements targeting disgraced former Gov. Eric Greitens, beginning Friday. Greitens is running in their upcoming Missouri Senate primary. The outfit is set to air more than $1 million worth of commercials through the end of June, and a person involved with the organization said it planned to remain involved in the race up until the Aug. 2 primary. Top Republicans have spent much of the last year expressing deep concerns about Greitens, who stepped down as Missouri governor in 2018 amid allegations that he sexually assaulted his hairdresser. Polls have consistently shown Greitens ahead his primary rivals, including state Attorney General Eric Schmitt, Rep. Vicky Hartzler and Rep. Billy Long.

— Education Department unveils Title IX rule boosting protections for transgender students: Education Secretary Miguel Cardona unveiled his plan today to codify safeguards for transgender students and overhaul the Trump-era version of the rule that mandates how schools must respond to sexual misconduct complaints. The proposal would ban “all forms of sex discrimination, including discrimination based on sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation and gender identity.” It is unclear how the rule would apply to athletics.

UKRAINE’S NEXT TOP SPY — You think you know someone, and then Russia invades your country and your childhood friend turned top intelligence official flubs it and some of his senior spies flee their posts, apparently helping the Kremlin’s forces avoid landmines and direct its attack aircraft to blast your cities.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy isn’t getting a lot of sleep these days, and the man he appointed to lead Ukraine’s domestic intelligence and security agency can’t be helping matters. Ivan Bakanov — his friend from way back who once ran his entertainment company and then his presidential campaign — is on thin ice in Kyiv, writes Christopher Miller.

Zelenskyy is looking to replace Bakanov, who now runs Ukraine’s spy agency, with someone more suitable to serve as the wartime chief of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), according to four officials close to the president and a Western diplomat who has advised Kyiv on reforms needed to revamp the SBU.

Some said the old friends rarely speak these days, save for government business. Ensuring a smooth transition may be tricky with the war still raging, with one official telling POLITICO that Zelenskyy is worried about the optics of sacking someone from his inner circle. For now, much of the SBU’s daily operations are being run from the presidential office and people still in good graces of Zelenskyy and his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak.

BIDEN’S LATIN AMERICA JUGGLING ACT — The election of guerilla-turned-politician Gustavo Petro as the first leftist president of Colombia last weekend marked a historic turn for the Latin American nation. It could become a historic headache for President Joe Biden as well, writes Sabrina Rodriguez.

Petro’s leftist politics poses new hurdles for the U.S., as it holds the potential to rearrange the two countries’ longstanding alliance that has garnered bipartisan support for decades. He has sought to reestablish diplomatic ties with Venezuela’s authoritarian regime, which the Biden administration does not recognize. He’s criticized a decadeslong partnership with the U.S. on the forced eradication of coca, the base ingredient of cocaine, and the extradition of drug cartel leaders. He’s also suggested cutting oil exploration at a time Biden has asked nations to produce more.

His election has sparked uproar among conservatives and some moderates in the U.S. But for now, Biden administration officials appear to be taking a cautious approach, looking for points of shared interest. In a call to Petro on Tuesday, 48 hours after his victory, Biden congratulated him and Francia Márquez, a longtime environmental activist who will become the country’s first Black vice president. Biden “welcomed the opportunity to discuss bilateral security and counternarcotics cooperation,” according to a White House readout.

JOHN EASTMAN’S CRIMINAL EXPOSURE IS REAL — Few people have gone from relative obscurity to public pariah as quickly as Eastman. A year and a half ago, he was an oddly dressed rally speaker fulminating about imaginary voter fraud. He stood on the same stage as Trump before a crowd in Washington that included many who would go on to take part in the siege of the U.S. Capitol. The former Trump adviser now finds himself in the deeply uncomfortable but well-deserved position of being one of the most reviled lawyers in America. And, if the Jan. 6 committee has its way, he’ll be the target of a criminal investigation for his central role in what committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) described as an “attempted coup,” writes Ankush Khardori.

Before November 2020, Eastman was a lawyer comfortably situated in the constellation of conservative legal institutions and media outlets. A former clerk for Judge J. Michael Luttig and Justice Clarence Thomas, Eastman was a professor and onetime dean of the law school at Chapman University who was prominently affiliated with the Federalist Society, the National Organization for Marriage, the Public Interest Legal Foundation and the Claremont Institute. His résumé may imply some semblance of seriousness, but prior to his presidential transition shenanigans, Eastman’s best known piece of legal analysis was an op-ed questioning Kamala Harris’ eligibility to be vice president that was such obvious and detestable junk that the outlet that ran it had to apologize.

Viewers of the Jan. 6 House select committee’s hearings could be forgiven for thinking the clearest case of criminal misconduct is being made against Eastman — and that perhaps proving his guilt is the best path toward implicating Trump.

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