Justice Clarence Thomas told Sen. Ted Cruz on the Verdict podcast that the Second Amendment treats gun ownership as already belonging to the people rather than creating it. He framed that view as part of a larger claim that rights originate with God, not with any government, and that they existed before the United States was formed.

Thomas said the distinction matters because one approach treats government as the source of rights and benefits while the other treats people as already possessing rights and government as drawing its power from them. He urged listeners to keep in mind rights that exist prior to and beyond the state, and he cited Justice Antonin Scalia on how the Constitution is structured to protect those rights.