At the heart of equity jurisprudence and practice is that a judge contemplating an injunction weighs the competing interests of the parties before her and considers the public interest—the impact of her order beyond the parties immediately before her. But in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, four Associate Justices—Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Barrett—departed dramatically from that norm.

The plurality opinion is authored by Clarence Thomas, who as senior associate justice in the majority elected to speak for the majority. Rather than leave to the presumably sovereign state legislatures the conventional balancing, the plurality strips that power, declaring: "The Second Amendment 'is the very product of an interest balancing by the people' and it 'surely elevates above all other interests the right of law-abiding, responsible citizens to use arms' for self-defense. Heller v. D.C. It is this balance—struck by the traditions of the American people—that demands our unqualified deference."