US Supreme Court won't review assault weapon, high-capacity magazine bans

Reuters ^ | June 2, 2025 | Andrew Chung

[PROCON]

June 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a challenge to the legality of state restrictions on assault-style rifles and large-capacity ammunition magazines, passing up for now cases that offered the justices a chance to further expand gun rights.

The justices turned away two appeals after lower courts upheld a ban in Maryland on powerful semi-automatic rifles such as AR-15s and one in Rhode Island restricting the possession of ammunition feeding devices holding more than 10 rounds. The lower courts rejected arguments that the measures violate the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment right to "keep and bear arms."

Three conservative justices, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, dissented from the court's decision not to hear the cases.

A fourth, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in a statement accompanying the Maryland case expressed sympathy for the argument made by the challengers that semiautomatic AR-15s are in common use by "law-abiding citizens and therefore are protected by the Second Amendment." Kavanaugh said the issue will return to the Supreme Court, which "presumably will address the AR–15 issue soon."

[PROCON]

It's outrageous that the Supremes don't override the obvious unconstitutional rulings by all these lower courts!

[PROCON]

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[HamiltonJay]

How is “FURTHER EXPANDING GUN RIGHTS”?

These things were legal, then some states decided to take them away.. the RIGHTS were there, and have been curtailed.. If the Supreme Court were to rule in favor of these bans it would be a CURTAILING of Gun Rights.. if they declare them illegal it is not an expansion of gun rights...

The Media is a biased lying sack of excrement.

[circlecity]

“…powerful semi-automatic rifles such as AR-15s”

An AR-15 isn’t a particularly powerful rifle.

[Red Badger]

DEFINE “HIGH CAPACITY”.......................

[stevio]

Not good.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

TYRANTS

[marktwain]

The Supreme Court has been relisting these cases for months.

This means they have not granted a writ of certiorari or denied a writ of certiorari. It means they have not decided to take the cases or not.

When cases are relisted this many times, the cases stand a better chance of being heard by the Supreme Court than otherwise. It is uncertain when the may be heard.

[alancarp]

' Kavanaugh said the issue will return to the Supreme Court, which "presumably will address the AR–15 issue soon."'

Was this a case of 'yes, we want to discuss this issue, but these somehow aren't the right cases for this conversation' ??

[Aside: So in the meantime, the rights of citizens in two states are stomped upon -- despite a previous ruling that the 2nd amendment is supposed to flow down to the state level -- and Democrats will now be emboldened to double down on their outrageously restrictive legislation efforts.]

[LS]

Bad article, bad take. The missing word is “YET.” Kavanaugh noted that there were many other cases out there percolating that he wanted to come to closure first, so that the Court isn’t dealing with 10 more of these.

[libertylover]

Disgusting ruling.

[George from New England]

Of course, every SCOTUS judgie is above the law. These limits don’t extend to their own security personel do they ?

[Openurmind]

Of course not. They should be forced to clock in 8 hours a day five days a week every week and deal with EVERY case that reaches the Supreme Court.

It is their JOB!

[1Old Pro]

DEFINE “HIGH CAPACITY”.....

More than 1?

[sauropod]

bkmk

[Savage Beast]

The problem with the Supreme Court is that it’s stocked with educated but unwise justices. They cannot believe the obvious truth that they are neither as smart, nor as wise, nor as morally accurate as President Donald Trump.

[9YearLurker]

At most, we have 3 conservative Justices though GOP presidents have named 6 out of the 9.

[CFW]

Opinion here:

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24-203_5ie6.pdf

In his opinion, Kavanaugh set out the law and prior rulings as to how Maryland’s ban was clearly against Supreme Court precedent. And then states this:

“Opinions from other Courts of Appeals should assist this Court’s ultimate decisionmaking on the AR–15 issue. Additional petitions for certiorari will likely be before this Court shortly and, in my view, this Court should and presumably will address the AR–15 issue soon, in the next Term or two.”

---

So Maryland’s violations of Constitution rights and prior SCOTUS rulings is quite okay for a another year or two.

[packagingguy]

I was about to quote that also.

The “reporters” at Rooters would probably be terrified shooting a 5.56. “It could even penetrate an armored limousine carrying our favorite celebrity!”

[CFW]

Ooops. I meant to include this quote from the ruling as well:

“Under this Court’s Second Amendment precedents,
moreover, it can be analytically difficult to distinguish the
AR–15s at issue here from the handguns at issue in Heller.
AR–15s are semi-automatic, but so too are most handguns.
(Semi-automatic handguns and rifles are distinct from
automatic firearms such as the M–16 automatic rifle used
by the military.) Law-abiding citizens use both AR–15s and
handguns for a variety of lawful purposes, including selfdefense in the home. For their part, criminals use both AR–15s and handguns, as well as a variety of other lawful
weapons and products, in unlawful ways that threaten
public safety. But handguns can be more easily carried and
concealed than rifles, and handguns—not rifles—are used
in the vast majority of murders and other violent crimes
that individuals commit with guns in America.

In short, under this Court’s precedents, the Fourth
Circuit’s decision is questionable. Although the Court
today denies certiorari, a denial of certiorari does not mean
that the Court agrees with a lower-court decision or that
the issue is not worthy of review. The AR–15 issue was
recently decided by the First Circuit and is currently being
considered by several other Courts of Appeals. “