The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday took up two appeals contesting state and local restrictions on powerful semi-automatic rifles, agreeing to review challenges to bans that had been sustained by lower courts in Cook County, Illinois, and Connecticut. The cases focus on so-called assault-style rifles, including AR-15 variants that are often central to debates over mass shootings and gun violence.
Both lower courts had rejected claims that the restrictions infringe the Second Amendment guarantee to "keep and bear arms." The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments in the consolidated matter during its next term, which begins in October.
In a country deeply divided on how to respond to firearms-related violence, the composition of the Court is a critical factor. The current bench, with a 6-3 conservative majority, has in recent years taken steps that have broadly expanded constitutional protections for gun owners. Petitioners challenging the bans argue that assault-style rifles and large-capacity magazines are widely owned and, they say, that limits on such weapons conflict with Supreme Court precedents holding that the Second Amendment protects arms that are in "common use."
Historically, the Court issued major Second Amendment decisions in 2008 and 2010 that reshaped the legal landscape, and it issued another influential ruling in 2022 that tightened the standard for defending gun restrictions under the Constitution. The 2022 decision instructed lower courts to evaluate firearms regulation against the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.
The Court has further expanded gun rights during the current term. On June 26, it invalidated a Hawaii statute that limited the carrying of handguns on private property open to the public - such as most businesses - when the owner has not given permission. Earlier on June 18, the justices narrowed the reach of a decades-old federal law that prohibits firearms possession by certain drug users, in a decision that scaled back a provision that had put at risk the gun rights of millions of Americans who use marijuana and possess firearms.
As the Supreme Court prepares to weigh the constitutionality of state-level prohibitions on assault-style rifles, the legal and policy stakes are clear. The justices will determine how existing Second Amendment precedents apply to modern semi-automatic weapons and whether state and local governments retain the authority to impose the kinds of bans now at issue in Cook County and Connecticut.
Context and next steps
The Court’s acceptance of these appeals means a full review of both the legal reasoning applied by the lower courts and the broader constitutional questions raised by challengers. Oral arguments are expected in the term that begins in October, after which the justices will issue a decision at a later date.