BREAKING: SCOTUS allows Maryland, Rhode Island bans on AR-15s, large-capacity magazines to stand

The Supreme Court has declined to hear two cases challenging weapon restrictions in two East Coast states. One case relates to Maryland’s ban on AR-15 semiautomatic rifles, and the other relates to Rhode Island’s restriction on large-capacity magazines. With the court’s refusal to hear the two cases, the two laws remain in effect. 

In the Rhode Island case, Ocean State Technical, et al. V. Rhode Island, et al., Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch said they would have taken up the case. The same three justices said they would have taken up the Maryland case, David Snope, et al. v. Anthony G. Brown, in his official capacity as Attorney General of Maryland, et al.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a statement of the Maryland case that 41 of 50 states in the US allow the ownership of AR-15 rifles, "meaning that the States such as Maryland that prohibit AR-15s are somewhat of an outlier."

"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," he wrote, later adding, "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 of two."

In his dissent, Justice Thomas wrote, "the Fourth Circuit placed too high a burden on the challengers to show that the Second Amendment presumptively protected their conduct. And, its determination that AR-15s are dangerous and unusual does not withstand scrutiny. "

"I would not wait to decide whether the government can ban the most popular rifle in America. That question is of critical importance to tens of millions of law-abiding AR-15 owners throughout the country. We have avoided deciding it for a full decade," he wrote, adding, "and, further percolation is of little value when the lower courts in the jurisdictions that ban AR-15s appear bent on distorting this Court’s Second Amendment precedents.