A Lawsuit Focusing on Gun Makers Would Hit Us All

Can the flutter of a butterfly’s wing trigger a hurricane half a world away? Can stepping on a butterfly change the course of historical past, as imagined in Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder”? Imponderables like this have lengthy fascinated philosophers and science-fiction writers. But when a case at present earlier than the Supreme Court docket goes the unsuitable approach, such flights of fancy will likely be injected into our legislation, vastly increasing the scope of potential legal responsibility for each particular person and enterprise within the nation.

Till lately, nobody anticipated butterfly-effect theories to invade our authorized system. The age-old doctrine of “proximate trigger” ensured that events will be held liable just for harms which are the direct and rapid consequence of their very own actions. They will’t be held accountable for harms related with their very own actions in solely a extremely attenuated approach. And rightly so—the choice can be a nightmare world during which everyone seems to be susceptible to being held accountable for penalties occurring downstream of their actions, irrespective of how distant. As Justice Antonin Scalia memorably put it, “ ‘for need of a nail, a kingdom was misplaced’ is a commentary on destiny, not the assertion of a serious reason for motion towards a blacksmith.”