Second Amendment Roundup: Cert denied in rifle and magazine ban cases.
After fifteen re-listings, on June 2 the Supreme Court denied cert in Snope v. Brown, which concerns Maryland’s ban on semiautomatic rifles, and Ocean State Tactical v. Rhode Island, which concerns Rhode Island’s magazine ban. I previously discussed these cases here.
Cert denial in Ocean State was more predictable, even though Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch would have granted the petition, as it sought review of denial of a preliminary injunction. But in Snope (styled Bianchi v. Brown in the 4th Circuit) – which has a final judgment based on a full record –Justices Alito and Gorsuch are listed as having been in the “would have granted” category, with Justice Thomas writing a dissent from denial. The big news is that Justice Kavanaugh issued a statement in Snope concluding that “this Court should and presumably will address the AR–15 issue soon, in the next Term or two.”
According to Justice Kavanaugh, “Americans today possess an estimated 20 to 30 million AR–15s,” which are “legal in 41 of the 50 States, meaning that the States such as Maryland that prohibit AR–15s are something of an outlier.” That suggests that AR–15s meet Heller‘s “common use” test, as then-D.C. Circuit Judge Kavanaugh opined in Heller 2. “If so, then the Fourth Circuit would have erred by holding that Maryland’s ban on AR–15s complies with the Second Amendment.”
Moreover, Justice Kavanaugh continues, “it can be analytically difficult to distinguish the AR–15s at issue here from the handguns at issue in Heller.” Most handguns are semiautomatic, as is the AR–15 rifle, and law-abiding citizens use both for lawful purposes such as self-defense in the home.
Several circuits are con
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