The Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it has not yet reviewed a challenge to Illinois’ ban on certain types of semiautomatic weapons, accessories and magazines, effectively leaving the law in place while lower courts rule on the case.
In its final list of orders before the summer recess, the court rejected petitions to hear six separate cases regarding the so-called “assault weapons ban,” prompting Judge Clarence Thomas to issue a statement.
Thomas noted that the case came to the Supreme Court after the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request for a preliminary injunction challenging the law. The court held that the AR-15, one of the nation’s most popular semi-automatic rifles, does not enjoy Second Amendment protections.
Thomas concluded, “The Seventh Circuit’s decision illustrates why this court must provide more guidance on weapons covered by the Second Amendment.” He added, “If the Seventh Circuit ultimately allows Illinois to ban the U.S. The most common civilian rifle we can and should review, a decision will be made once the case is finalized.
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On January 11, 2023, Freddie Bear Sports in Tinley Park, Illinois, displayed an assault rifle that is now banned for sale in Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
“The Court Shall Not Permit” Seventh Circuit [to] Downgrade[e] Second-class rights under the Second Amendment,” Thomas said.
The Illinois legislation took effect after the 2022 mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park.
Hannah Hill, executive director of the National Gun Rights Association, one of the groups challenging the 7th Circuit’s decision, wrote on X after the announcement, “We will definitely Back.
“But my heart breaks today for the people of Illinois,” she added. “Their rights have been stripped away by their own government and delayed by the Supreme Court, and the country will suffer as a result of today’s decision.”
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Levi Slater of Accuracy Firearms described details of a Heckler & Koch brand rifle that cannot be sold to customers due to Illinois gun legislation prohibiting the sale and distribution of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in Effingham, Illinois. (John J. King/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
托馬斯在聲明中說，最高法院在哥倫比亞特區訴海勒案的裁決中，「從表面上看，第二修正案的保護範圍擴大到構成可攜帶武器的所有文書，甚至是那些在當時不存在的document”. Established. ‘”
“Moreover, we note that ‘the Second Amendment does not protect weapons that are not ordinarily possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes,’ recognizing the ‘historic tradition of prohibiting the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons,'” he wrote.
“However, this minimum guidance is far from a comprehensive framework for assessing the limitations of weapon types, and it leaves open some fundamental questions, such as what makes a weapon ‘affordable,’ ‘dangerous,’ or ‘unusual,'” Thomas added. .
Judge Clarence Thomas said Tuesday that “if the Seventh Circuit ultimately allows Illinois to ban America’s most common civilian rifle, we can and should review that decision after the case is finally decided.” (Photo by Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
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“In my opinion, Illinois’ ban ‘is highly questionable because it broadly prohibits common semi-automatic firearms used for lawful purposes,'” he concluded.
