Status of the Snope AR Ban Case
BY Herschel Smith
1 week, 5 days ago
The Snope AR ban case has been punted into next year by SCOTUS. Cowardly court. "Yeh, it's sad, believe me, Missy, When you're born to be a sissy Without the vim and verve. But I could show my prowess, be a lion not a mou-ess If I only had the nerve."
— CaptainsJournal (@BrutusMaximus50) March 12, 2025
On March 12, 2025 at 1:38 am, Observer said:
There is another possibility. Caetano was handed down on March 21, 2016 as a per curiam opinion without arguments. It’s possible that Snope and Ocean State Tactical could follow the same path.
On March 12, 2025 at 12:52 pm, Archer said:
@Observer: That could happen, sure, but Caetano was about less-than-lethal electronic defense weapons (stun guns and such). Declaring them protected under the 2nd Amendment — and therefore, bans on them unconstitutional — is far less Earth-shaking than declaring AR-pattern rifles protected and AR bans unconstitutional.
And the Supreme Court under John Roberts has thus far been extremely averse to issuing Earth-shaking opinions. Even when they do, there’s enough weasel-wording in the concurring and dissenting opinions that the lower courts find ways to not abide by it.
For example, how many times in the last 17 years have we heard that “the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited”? That’s language from Heller (2008), which was decided ostensibly in our favor, but “not unlimited” has been used by lower courts to justify upholding any bans and restrictions they want; apparently “not unlimited” means anything goes, and the lower courts may ignore the merits and presume that the law being challenged automatically falls into that exception.
Like it or not, the Constitutional question of whether so-called “assault weapons” fall under 2nd Amendment protections is a controversial one, and I don’t see this SCOTUS deciding such a controversial question without oral arguments and amicus curiae briefs, of which they’re sure to get hundreds if not thousands. Ergo, if SCOTUS has not scheduled oral arguments and opened the floodgates for amicus briefs, I conclude they’re probably not deciding this one this term.
I hope you’re right, but I just don’t see it happening.
On March 12, 2025 at 2:13 pm, Herschel Smith said:
The supreme court is frightened. There will be hundreds of briefs and “friend of the court” submittals.
This won’t get handled this term.