Overview

• In a 6-3 split, the justices refused to hear challenges to Maryland’s prohibition on assault-style rifles and Rhode Island’s ban on magazines holding more than 10 rounds, leaving both laws intact.
• Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, arguing that semiautomatic rifles like the AR-15 are “arms” under the Second Amendment’s plain text and that Maryland bears the burden to prove historical analogues for its ban.
• Justice Brett Kavanaugh described the Fourth Circuit’s ruling upholding Maryland’s ban as “questionable” and predicted the high court will take up an AR-15 case within the next term or two.
• Lower courts applied the Supreme Court’s 2022 Bruen standard to uphold both bans, with the Fourth Circuit deeming AR-15s ill-suited for self-defense and the First Circuit calling large-capacity magazines “highly effective weapons of mass slaughter.”
• The decision highlights ongoing confusion in lower courts over the Bruen test, ensuring that future Second Amendment challenges to modern gun restrictions will return to the Supreme Court.