Fluet achieved an important Second Amendment victory for the Firearms Policy Coalition and individual plaintiffs in Heeter v. James, Case No. 24-cv-623-JLS-HKS (W.D.N.Y. October 21, 2026), striking down New York State’s Body Armor Ban as unconstitutional. The ban prohibited law abiding citizens—except those in certain eligible professions—from purchasing, possessing, or using defensive body armor (including bullet-proof backpacks for school children).
The United States District Court for the Western District of New York (Sinatra, J.) agreed with Fluet and our clients that body armor is an “arm,” in accordance with the definition adopted by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Second Amendment cases. The Court found that New York State’s proffered analogous laws on armor restrictions from Ancient Greece and English Monarchs were insufficient to show a well-established, mainstream American tradition of banning purely defensive arms, and therefore concluded that the Body Armor Ban is unconstitutional. Read Judge Sinatra’s decision here, and Fluet’s brief here.
Nicolas Rotsko, Chair of Fluet’s Litigation + Investigations Practice was lead counsel in the case. Mr. Rotsko said, “We are pleased with Judge Sinatra’s well-reasoned and thorough decision and are confident that this was the correct result under the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment jurisprudence.”
Fluet’s Litigation + Investigations team regularly represents clients in constitutional and administrative challenges to government action at the federal, state, and local levels. Learn more about the practice, here.
