Justice Clarence Thomas issued a strong dissent Monday after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to Maryland’s ban on so-called “assault weapons,” including the AR-15 — the most popular rifle in the United States.
The Court’s decision leaves in place a 2013 Maryland law that bans a range of semiautomatic rifles, classified under state law as “assault weapons.”
A federal appeals court previously upheld the law in a 10-5 ruling.
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By denying the petition for certiorari, the Supreme Court will not revisit that ruling, and Maryland’s ban will remain in effect.
Thomas, joined by Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch in wanting to take up the case, criticized the Court for declining to act on what he described as a critical Second Amendment issue.
The Supreme Court has denied SAF’s Petition for Cert in Snope v Brown, our challenge to the Maryland Assault Weapons Ban. Justice Thomas wrote a lengthy dissent from the denial, and was joined in his position that cert should have been granted by Justices Alito and Gorsuch.… pic.twitter.com/x8GPWC15Db
— SAF (@2AFDN) June 2, 2025
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In his written dissent, Thomas said the high court has avoided the issue for too long.
“I would not wait to decide whether the government can ban the most popular rifle in America,” Thomas 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 added that courts would not hesitate to intervene if other constitutional rights were similarly restricted.
“I doubt we would sit idly by if lower courts were to so subvert our precedents involving any other constitutional right. Until we are vigilant in enforcing it, the right to bear arms will remain ‘a second-class right,’” he said.
Thomas also criticized the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which upheld Maryland’s ban.
He said the court improperly shifted the burden of proof onto those challenging the law, rather than requiring the state to prove that the restriction is lawful.
“The Fourth Circuit placed too high a burden on the challengers to show that the Second Amendment presumptively protected their conduct,” Thomas wrote.
“And, it’s determination that AR–15s are dangerous and unusual does not withstand scrutiny.”
Justice Brett Kavanaugh also issued a statement on the denial but did not join Thomas’s dissent.
Kavanaugh indicated that the Court’s refusal to take up the case should not be interpreted as agreement with the Maryland law.
“Opinions from other Courts of Appeals should assist this Court’s ultimate decision-making on the AR–15 issue,” Kavanaugh stated.
“Additional petitions for certiorari 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.”
The case was brought forward by the Firearms Policy Coalition, a pro-Second Amendment organization that challenged Maryland’s law.
The group expressed its frustration with the Court’s decision.
“We are disappointed that some of the justices did not have the judicial courage to do their most important job and enforce the Constitution,” the Firearms Policy Coalition said in a public statement.
“Like millions of peaceable gun owners across the country, we are frustrated that the Court continues to allow lower courts to treat the Second Amendment as a second-class right.”
The group added that it remains committed to challenging similar firearm bans across the country and vowed to return to the Supreme Court.
“But more than anything else, we are more resolved than ever to fight forward and eliminate these immoral bans throughout the nation, whatever and however long it takes,” the statement concluded.
In addition to the Maryland case, the Supreme Court also declined to hear a separate challenge to Rhode Island’s ban on high-capacity firearm magazines.
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