Overview

• The Firearms Policy Coalition and the Second Amendment Foundation filed a petition Wednesday seeking Supreme Court review of Viramontes v. Cook County.
• The case challenges the Blair Holt Assault Weapons Ban, which prohibits possession, acquisition, and transfer of specified semiautomatic firearms, names roughly 125 rifles including the AR-15, and covers rifles that accept large-capacity magazines.
• Lower courts have ruled against the plaintiffs, with a federal judge dismissing the suit in March and a Seventh Circuit panel in June saying the challengers offered no basis to revisit earlier rulings upholding such bans.
• The filing follows recent Supreme Court denials of similar appeals, though Justice Brett Kavanaugh has written that the Court likely will address the AR-15 issue in the next term or two and cited the Cook County case as a potential vehicle.
• Separate appeals over Illinois’s 2023 statewide ban continue, and the Seventh Circuit had not set oral argument as of mid-August according to court reporting.