The Supreme Court has declined to hear a challenge to a law Maryland introduced after the Sandy Hook school massacre in 2012. The Maryland law bans what the state calls assault weapons, including the AR-15 rifle, NBC News reports. The justices rejected a challenge from gun rights groups, a gun dealer, and Maryland residents who argued that their Second Amendment rights were being violated, reports Reuters. The decision leaves the ban in place for now, but an appeal is pending with Virginia-based 4th Circuit US Court of Appeals and the issue is likely to return to the Supreme Court, NBC notes.
The AP reports that it "would have been unusual for the justices to take up a case at this point, since a lower court is still weighing it." The Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the law in 2017, before it had a conservative supermajority, but it ordered lower courts to take another look at it in 2022. The plaintiffs sought a Supreme Court ruling because they felt the 4th Circuit court was taking too long. Last year, the top court declined to block a similar law in Illinois. An appeal in that case is pending. (More gun rights stories.)
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