by In the most recent Order List from the US Supreme Court, certiorari was granted in two challenges to assault weapons bans. They granted cert in Viramontes out of Illinois and Grant out of Connecticut.
25-238 ) VIRAMONTES, CUTBERTO, ET AL. V. COOK COUNTY, IL, ET AL.)
25-566 ) GRANT, EDDIE, ET AL. V. HIGGINS, RONNELL, ET AL.
The petitions for writs of certiorari are granted as to the question presented by the petition in No. 25-238. The cases are consolidated, and a total of one hour is allotted for oral argument.
Both cases have attorneys from Cooper & Kirk as the attorneys of record. The question raised in Viramontes was a bit more succinct that the question raised in Grant. It merely asked: “Whether the Second and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee the right to possess AR-15 platform and similar semiautomatic rifles.” Grant also included “common use” and “lawful purposes” in its wording.
Two other AWB cases remain active as cert has not been denied. They are the California case of Duncan v Bonta and the Washington State case of Gator’s Custom Guns v Washington. They were scheduled for conference yesterday but were not included in today’s order list. The attorneys in both these cases are Erin Murphy and Paul Clement.
In other 2A cases, NRA v. Glass, was denied cert. This was the NRA challenge to Florida’s law denying 18-20 year olds the right to buy firearms of any sort from a licensed dealer. There are moves to reduce the age in the Florida legislature but it seems to be held up in the Florida Senate. However, an appeals court in Florida has just ruled that 18-20 years have the right to carry a firearm.
The Supreme Court also denied cert to a West Virginia case, WV Citizens Defense League v BATFE, which challenged the restrictions on the purchase of handguns by 18-20 year old.
The next term of the Supreme Court will be very interesting with two and maybe four challenges to assault weapons bans.
