Supreme Court Won't Hear Challenge To Illinois Ban On 'Assault Weapons', Other Gun Appeals

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,

The Supreme Court declined on July 2 to take up several Second Amendment-based challenges to gun laws, including a lawsuit about an Illinois law that prohibits so-called assault weapons such as the AR-15 rifle.

The decision came in a long list of orders in ongoing cases that the court issued the day after it finished delivering opinions in all the argued cases for the 2023-2024 term.

The justices now head off to their summer recess. The Court will resume hearing cases on the first Monday in October.

Justice Clarence Thomas filed a statement saying he would have granted the petition for certiorari, or review, in the Illinois case known as Harrel v. Raoul.

No other justices dissented.

At least four of the nine justices must vote to grant a petition for it to advance.

The law in Illinois made it a felony-level offense to have “assault weapons,” including AR-15s.

Quoting from a previous court ruling, Justice Thomas noted that the AR-15 “is the most popular semi-automatic rifle” in the United States and is “in common use today.”

The petitioners in the case applied for a preliminary injunction to halt enforcement of the law, taking the position that it violated their right to “keep and bear Arms” under the Second Amendment.

Although the court “is rightly wary of taking cases” that are still before lower courts, Justice Thomas wrote he hoped the nation’s highest court “will consider the important issues presented by these petitions after the cases reach final judgment.”

The Supreme Court has “never squarely addressed what types of weapons are ‘Arms’ protected by the Second Amendment,” the justice wrote.