MARYLAND - The U.S. Supreme Court decided Monday not to hear arguments in relation to Maryland’s assault weapons ban, leaving the ban in effect while lower courts weigh the policy’s fate.
With the Supreme Court declining to hear the case, a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit is now the next expected decision on the ban’s legality under the Second Amendment. The Court of Appeals heard arguments in March. The court previously upheld the law, passed in 2012 following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
In 2022, a Supreme Court decision expanded the scope of the Second Amendment and created a framework in which gun laws must adhere to the United States historical tradition of firearm regulation. That expansion opened Maryland’s ban on assault-style weapons to renewed legal challenges, and the case was once again brought to federal court.
While the 4th Circuit Appeals Court weighed their decision, gun rights advocates urged the Supreme Court to hear the case before the appellate court could make a decision, arguing the case is of “imperative importance.”
Maryland Attorney General Brown, however, argued it was too early for the Supreme Court to intervene. The ban on some semiautomatic firearms, according to Brown, passes the Supreme Court’s new framework "because it is consistent with our nation's historical tradition of firearms regulation, which encompasses regulation of novel arms posing heightened dangers to public safety."
The dispute over the assault-style weapons ban is expected to once again end up before the Supreme Court once the Court of Appeals makes its decision.