The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a challenge to a state ban on assault weapons, though Justice Brett Kavanaugh signaled that the high court would soon decide on the constitutionality of banning AR-15 weapons, reported the Hill.
"Opinions from other Courts of Appeals should assist this Court's ultimate decision-making on the AR-15 issue," Kavanaugh wrote in a statement on the Snope v. Brown denial.
"Additional petitions for [judicial review] will likely be before this Court shortly and, in my view, this Court should and presumably will address the AR-15 issue soon, in the next Term or two."
Snope v. Brown tackles the issue of whether the U.S. Constitution permits Maryland to ban semiautomatic rifles that are in common use for lawful purposes. The AR-15 is the top-selling rifle in America.
Maryland in 2013 passed a law banning the sale and transfer of assault-style firearms, including AR-15s, after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
Justice Clarence Thomas said the court should have considered the question.
"I would not wait to decide whether the government can ban the most popular rifle in America," he wrote. "That question is of critical importance to tens of millions of law-abiding AR-15 owners throughout the country. We have avoided deciding it for a full decade."
He also said the court's commitment to the Second Amendment was not adequate.
"I doubt we would sit idly by if lower courts were to so subvert our precedents involving any other constitutional right," he wrote. "Until we are vigilant in enforcing it, the right to bear arms will remain 'a second-class right.'"
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.