On December 1, 2020, the Maryland ban on AR-15s was challenged. The plaintiffs lost in the District Court and before the Fourth Circuit. In August 2024, a cert petition was filed in Snope v. Brown. The petition sat in purgatory for nearly a year with fourteen relists.
Today, the Supreme Court finally put the petition out of its misery and denied cert. Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch would have granted. Justice Barrett, as usual said nothing. Justice Kavanaugh wrote a very unusual statement respecting the denial of the petition. The first two paragraphs explain why the Maryland decision was “questionable.” If you read these parts, you would expect a grant. Indeed, Kavanaugh as circuit judge had found that the District of Columbia’s ban on AR-15s was unconstitutional. But then, we get to the last paragraph:
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. See Capen v. Campbell, 134 F. 4th 660 (CA1 2025); see also, e.g., National Assn. for Gun Rights v. Lamont, 685 F. Supp. 3d 63 (Conn. 2023), appeal pending, No. 23–1162 (CA2); Association of N. J. Rifle & Pistol Clubs, Inc. v. Platkin, 742 F. Supp. 3d 421 (NJ 2024), appeal pending, No. 24–2415 (CA3); Viramontes v. County of Cook, No. 1:21–cv–4595 (NDIll., Mar. 1, 2024), appeal pending, No. 24–1437 (CA7); Miller v. Bonta, 699 F. Supp. 3d 956 (SD Cal. 2023), appeal pending, No. 23–2979 (CA9). Opinions from other Courts of Appeals should assist this Court’s ultimate decision making 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.
My mouth nearly hit the floor when I read this. Kavanaugh all-but signals that he will be a fourth vote to grant cert. He does not identify any vehicle problems, or reasons why the Maryland petition should not be granted. Does he really think that rulings from the Ninth Circuit will help much in the deliberations? These courts will all rule against the Second Amendment. Nothing is in doubt. The upshot is that the Court is really busy with other stuff right now, and you all should just come back later. The Second Amendment could take a sabbatical for a year or two until the docket lightens up. Indeed, this case has been pending for nearly four years. Maryland gun owners will just have to chill.
so, back to the Illinois AW ban case again
This is absolutely, positively INSANE! Kavanaugh lists 5 other cases and says lower court rulings should help them eventually decide this issue. WTF?!?! The fact that there are several other cases challenging clearly unconstitutional laws should make it IMPERATIVE that SCOTUS hears Snope or a similar case ASAP!!!
I have lost all respect for and confidence in SCOTUS. Thomas and Alito know what’s what, but the rest of them appear to be satisfied to do nothing more than attack Trump’s executive orders.
try getting compliance, useless robe-*******. but keep sucking illegal alien & transit dick @ high speed
Notice how every one of your comments involves sucking dick? What a closet case.
IF the case is about mixing church and state as long as it’s christianity, OR to uphold some anti-trans law then the court doesn’t fuck around and wait, wait, wait, interlocutory this or that, let it play out in the lower courts for 13 more years, blah blah blah. When will gullible gun owners understand that everything is rigged against you? Probably never. They continue to vote pro-police state statist republican. What a bunch of knuckle draggers!
For a constitutional log jam just take two aspirin and contact us “in the next Term or two.” One would think triage would’ve been enacted by now.