The Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to Illinois’ ban on certain semiautomatic weapons and high-capacity magazines on Tuesday, avoiding what would have been a blockbuster Second Amendment case.
In brief order, the justices rejected a series of challenges to the Illinois law and local ordinances. Conservative Justice Samuel Alito publicly disagreed, voting to accept the case.
The decision maintains the bans for now, although challenges continue in lower courts. Granting the appeals could have impacted laws passed in more than a dozen states that ban assault weapons such as the AR-15 rifle or certain magazines.
Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a statement indicating that the court is “rightfully cautious” about taking up the challenges now because they remain in a preliminary stance, but Thomas said the issue is worth addressing in the future.
“But if the Seventh Circuit allows Illinois to ban America’s most common civilian rifle, we can — and should — revisit that decision once the cases reach a final judgment,” Thomas wrote.
Bans on assault rifles have become a flashpoint in the constitutional debate surrounding gun control following the Supreme Court’s landmark Second Amendment decision two years ago that changed the test for weighing the constitutionality of gun laws.
That decision led lower courts to strike down a dizzying array of restrictions.
In six related cases consolidated by a lower court, more than two dozen plaintiffs — which include gun rights groups, gun store owners and individual Illinois residents — argued that bans like those passed in Illinois are unconstitutional. under the new test.
Each of the actions challenges Illinois law or similar ordinances passed in Chicago, Cook County and Naperville.
“This Court needs to intervene before this open challenge spreads further,” lawyers for a group of plaintiffs wrote in their petition to the Supreme Court.
“The Court has repeatedly reminded courts and legislatures that the Second Amendment is not a second-class right. Unfortunately, the Court must now instruct them that Bruen – this Court’s recent emphatic 6-3 decision – is not a second-class precedent,” they continued.
Democrats approved some of the measures following a mass shooting at the Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, that killed seven people and injured dozens of others in 2022.
The Supreme Court has declined to intervene in the case on its emergency docket twice previously. In May, the justices rejected a challenge to a similar ban on assault rifles in Maryland.
In court documents, Illinois and the three local governments urged the Supreme Court to stay out of the case and uphold the lower ruling keeping the various restrictions in place.
“Therefore, there is no conflict among the federal courts of appeals on the issue presented,” his lawyers wrote.
“Meanwhile, the issue continues to percolate into at least seven circuits. Furthermore, this case is a poor vehicle for resolving the issue presented,” they continued.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court refused the Biden administration’s request to take up several cases that implicated the constitutionality of federal law making it a crime for felons to possess guns.
The court sent those cases and several other Second Amendment petitions, including one implicating the charge on which Hunter Biden was convicted, back to the lower courts for another review following the Supreme Court’s recent gun ruling.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
