FRUITLAND, Md. - The Supreme Court of the United States has denied a petition filed by a Wicomico County man challenging a Maryland law that bars him from legally possessing a firearm.
Filed in the Supreme Court in October of 2025, Robert L. Fooks’ case centers on a Maryland Public Safety statute that prohibits someone from owning a gun if they’ve been convicted of a common-law crime and received a prison sentence of more than two years. In his petition, Fooks argued that his disqualifying conviction, a 2017 finding of constructive criminal contempt tied to failure to pay child support, should not permanently strip him of his constitutional right to keep and bear arms. He received just over a four-year sentence in that case. According to the filing, he does not have a felony conviction and does not have a record of violence.
Fooks was then found to be in possession of two handguns in 2020 by the Fruitland Police Department, according to court records. After being charged under Maryland firearm law, Fooks asked a trial court to dismiss the case, arguing the statute violates the Second Amendment. A Maryland circuit court denied that motion. To preserve his ability to appeal, he then entered a conditional guilty plea and was sentenced to probation, court documents show.
Maryland’s intermediate appellate court later upheld the conviction, and in 2025 the Supreme Court of Maryland affirmed that decision. Fooks then turned to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing Maryland courts failed to properly apply the U.S. Supreme Court’s modern Second Amendment framework, particularly decisions requiring courts to evaluate gun laws against the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.
In his petition, Fooks argued the Maryland statute is unconstitutional on its face because it broadly disarms people based on the length of a sentence, not whether they are dangerous. He also argued the law is unconstitutional as applied to him, saying his non-violent, non-felony background places him outside the historical categories of people traditionally barred from possessing firearms.
On Feb. 23, 2026, the Supreme Court denied the petition without comment, meaning the Court declined to hear the case without addressing the merits of Fooks’ arguments. As a result, the Maryland rulings stand, and the state’s firearm prohibition remains in effect as applied to Fooks.
For now, the broader constitutional question Fooks raised in how far states can go in disarming non-violent offenders under the Second Amendment will not be answered by the nation’s highest court in this case.