11:38 AM EDT, 10/04/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The Supreme Court will consider rejecting a lawsuit filed in a US court by Mexico's government alleging that Smith & Wesson (SWBI) and other companies facilitate gun sales to people linked to the country's drug cartels, court documents showed Friday.

The Supreme Court will hear company arguments that the suit filed by Mexico in a Massachusetts court shouldn't be allowed under a 2005 US law that provides a liability shield for gun companies.

The 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals said the 2005 law didn't provide a shield to the companies.

The 1st Circuit ruling "exposes a wide swath of industry to liability for doing nothing more than making available legal and nondefective products that can be criminally misused downstream," Smith & Wesson and other companies said in a petition to the court.

Mexico alleged in a court petition the companies "deliberately chose to engage in unlawful affirmative conduct to profit off the criminal market for their products,"

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