Maryland's AR-15 rifle ban remains in place after Supreme Court decision, though Kavanaugh signals future debate
Judge Clarence Thomas expressed dissent arguing that the Supreme Court should not delay resolving an issue that affects “tens of millions of law-abiding AR–15 owners throughout the country. We have avoided deciding it for a full decade.”
Ammunition casings used at the National Rifle Association.(File)
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take on a case challenging whether possession of AR-15 rifles is protected by the Second Amendment, upholding Maryland's ban on such rifles.
Only three conservative judges - Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch - voted to accept the case, falling one vote short of the four needed for the Supreme Court to review it.
Despite the refusal, Judge Brett Kavanaugh issued a three-page statement indicating his inclination to consider the issue soon. “In my view, this Court should and presumably will address the AR–15 issue soon, in the next Term or two," he wrote, calling the Maryland law "questionable."
He added that decisions by other appeals courts on similar bans in different states will help inform the Supreme Court's final decision.
Maryland's law, enacted in 2013 in the wake of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, bans the possession of AR-15 rifles and other weapons deemed "assault" by the state.
Maryland is one of nine states with similar bans, and the AR-15 rifle, the most popular among civilians in the United States, has been a focal point in legal battles over gun control.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Maryland's law, ruling that AR-15 rifles are not "constitutionally protected arms" under the Second Amendment, a decision that remains intact following the Supreme Court's refusal to intervene.
Thomas criticized the court's inaction, stating, "I doubt we would sit idly by if lower courts were to so subvert our precedents involving any other constitutional right."
Judges Alito and Gorsuch, while supporting accepting the case, did not join Thomas' dissent or offer explanations of their own.
The Supreme Court's decision also included the rejection of a challenge against Rhode Island's ban on high-capacity magazines.
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In that case, four gun owners and a local hunting store argued that lower courts had distorted the Supreme Court's recent expansions of Second Amendment rights to uphold Rhode Island's restrictions. Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch indicated that they would have agreed to review this dispute as well.
AR-15 rifles in Maryland and other states
Nine states, including Maryland, ban these rifles. If the Supreme Court in the future rules that AR-15s are protected by the Second Amendment, those bans could be overturned.
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