The U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to take up a pair of major Second Amendment cases from Maryland and Rhode Island that challenged bans on semi-automatic rifles labeled as “assault weapons” and similarly mislabeled “high-capacity” magazines, respectively.
Regarding Maryland’s “assault-weapons” ban, the Fourth Circuit previously upheld the state’s ban on the sale and possession of several common semiautomatic rifles, including the AR-15, and held that such rifles are not “arms” under the Second Amendment. The NRA filed an amicus brief in that case, titled Snope v. Brown, arguing that the Fourth Circuit contradicted the Supreme Court’s precedent in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008).
In Rhode Island, a 2022 law was passed that banned “high-capacity” magazines, which it defined as those capable over holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition that can be fed into a semiautomatic firearm. The case Ocean State Tactical v. Rhode Island challenged that ban, which was later upheld by the First Circuit.
“It is disappointing that SCOTUS refused to hear challenges to unconstitutional bans on popular firearms and standard capacity magazines,” wrote the NRA on X. “The NRA is currently challenging similar gun and magazine bans in California, Delaware, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington to restore the 2A rights of law-abiding Americans.”
Four votes were needed from the nine justices to hear oral arguments and weigh in on the merits of the cases, but in each, only three justices indicated that they would have granted the petition for review. It was stated Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch were in favor of hearing the Snope case, and Clarence Thomas wrote a dissent of the denial.
“I would not wait to decide whether the government can ban the most-popular rifle in America. That question is of critical importance to tens of millions of law-abiding AR-15 owners throughout the country. We have avoided deciding it for a full decade,” wrote Justice Thomas in his statement on Snope v. Brown.
Although he did not vote in favor of hearing this specific case, Justice Kavanaugh implied the Court is likely to take up a similar case in the future, writing, “In my view, this Court should and presumably will address the AR-15 issue soon, in the next term or two.”
Alito, Gorsuch, and Thomas also indicated they would have granted the petition to hear Ocean State Tactical v. Rhode Island.
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