On December 1, 2020, the Maryland ban on AR-15s was challenged. The plaintiffs misplaced within the District Courtroom and earlier than the Fourth Circuit. In August 2024, a cert petition was filed in Snope v. Brown. The petition sat in purgatory for almost a 12 months with fourteen relists.
As we speak, the Supreme Courtroom lastly put the petition out of its distress and denied cert. Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch would have granted. Justice Barrett, as regular stated nothing. Justice Kavanaugh wrote a really uncommon assertion respecting the denial of the petition. The primary two paragraphs clarify why the Maryland resolution was “questionable.” For those who learn these components, you’d count on a grant. Certainly, Kavanaugh as circuit choose had discovered that the District of Columbia’s ban on AR-15s was unconstitutional. However then, we get to the final paragraph:
Briefly, underneath this Courtroom’s precedents, the Fourth Circuit’s resolution is questionable. Though the Courtroom at present denies certiorari, a denial of certiorari doesn’t imply that the Courtroom agrees with a lower-court resolution or that the problem is just not worthy of overview. The AR–15 challenge was not too long ago determined by the First Circuit and is presently being thought of by a number of different Courts of Appeals. See Capen v. Campbell, 134 F. 4th 660 (CA1 2025); see additionally, e.g., Nationwide Assn. for Gun Rights v. Lamont, 685 F. Supp. 3d 63 (Conn. 2023), enchantment pending, No. 23–1162 (CA2); Affiliation of N. J. Rifle & Pistol Golf equipment, Inc. v. Platkin, 742 F. Supp. 3d 421 (NJ 2024), enchantment pending, No. 24–2415 (CA3); Viramontes v. County of Cook dinner, No. 1:21–cv–4595 (NDIll., Mar. 1, 2024), enchantment pending, No. 24–1437 (CA7); Miller v. Bonta, 699 F. Supp. 3d 956 (SD Cal. 2023), enchantment pending, No. 23–2979 (CA9). Opinions from different Courts of Appeals ought to help this Courtroom’s final resolution making on the AR–15 challenge. Further petitions for certiorari will seemingly be earlier than this Courtroom shortly and, for my part, this Courtroom ought to and presumably will deal with the AR–15 challenge quickly, within the subsequent Time period or two.
My mouth almost hit the ground once I learn this. Kavanaugh all-but indicators that he shall be a fourth vote to grant cert. He doesn’t determine any car issues, or explanation why the Maryland petition shouldn’t be granted. Does he actually suppose that rulings from the Ninth Circuit will assist a lot within the deliberations? These courts will all rule towards the Second Modification. Nothing is doubtful. The upshot is that the Courtroom is basically busy with different stuff proper now, and also you all ought to simply come again later. The Second Modification might take a sabbatical for a 12 months or two till the docket lightens up. Certainly, this case has been pending for almost 4 years. Maryland gun house owners will simply have to sit back.
Of late I have been praiseworthy of a few of Kavanaugh’s actions, that is the kind of Kavanaugh opinion that infuriates me. And the place is Justice Barrett on these points? A decade in the past in 2015, Justice Scalia dissented from denial of cert in Friedman v. Highland Park, a problem to an assault weapon ban. This challenge is not new. I feel this time period shall be remembered because the time period by which Justice Barrett’s slide turned indeniable. I began monitoring it years in the past, however it’s onerous to disregard now.
