The Supreme Court is set to consider more than 60 petitions challenging federal and local gun laws, including numerous felon-in-possession appeals that have been relisted for Friday’s private conference. The petitions come amid other high-profile cases the Court has already agreed to hear and include renewed challenges to AR-15 bans and magazine-capacity limits. Relisting suggests at least one justice is closely reviewing these matters, and the Court’s decisions could reshape how lower courts apply the historical-tradition test to modern gun regulations.
Supreme Court Weighs More Than 60 Second Amendment Challenges, From Felon Gun Bans to AR-15 Rules
The Supreme Court is confronting an unusually large wave of Second Amendment petitions this week as justices consider more than 60 challenges to federal and local gun restrictions at their private conference on Friday.
At stake are the limits of the Court’s recent expansion of gun rights, established by a new test that requires modern regulations to be consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. The petitions arrive while the Court has already agreed to hear cases early next year on whether unlawful drug users may possess firearms and on Hawaii’s permit system.
Felon-In-Possession Statute Under Scrutiny
Many of the filings challenge the federal statute that makes it a crime for people with felony convictions to possess firearms. That offense remains one of the most frequently prosecuted federal crimes: the U.S. Sentencing Commission reported 61,678 federal cases in Fiscal 2024, and roughly 6,700 of them—more than 10 percent—involved felon-in-possession convictions.
High-profile prosecutions underscore the statute’s reach: for example, the man who attempted to assassinate former President Trump at a Florida golf course was convicted on a felon-in-possession count in September.
Why So Many Petitions?
Since the Court adopted its historical-tradition test three years ago, criminal defendants nationwide have increasingly sought Supreme Court review of Second Amendment defenses. The justices have denied dozens of petitions so far, but a large number of relisted appeals this week suggests heightened interest on the bench.
Relisted petitions are ones the Court considered at a prior conference but returned to the agenda. Relisting often signals that at least one justice is examining the matter closely; the Court commonly relists cases it intends to grant, or relists to allow a justice time to prepare a dissent if the petition will be denied.
Related Cases And Broader Gun Issues
The Court has also relisted high-profile challenges involving assault-weapon bans and magazine-capacity limits. In June, the justices declined to take up a challenge to Maryland’s AR-15 ban after only three conservative justices voted to hear it; Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested in a statement he might join a future grant after further percolation in the lower courts.
That AR-15 question is back this term in a Cook County, Illinois, challenge to an assault-weapons ban. Cook County is urging the Court to decline review, arguing the plaintiffs failed to develop an adequate factual record and that more lower-court review is necessary before the Court resolves weapon-specific constitutional questions.
Challenges to high-capacity magazine bans in California and Washington have also been relisted. Ten states have enacted assault-weapons prohibitions of varying scope, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, and 14 states impose magazine-capacity limits ranging from 10 to 20 rounds, per the U.S. Concealed Carry Association.
Who’s Pressing For Review—and Who’s Defending
Conservative litigators and gun-rights groups are pressing the Court for review. Cooper & Kirk and Clement & Murphy—firms that frequently handle major Second Amendment litigation—represent several challengers. National groups including the National Rifle Association and the National Association for Gun Rights, along with 26 Republican state attorneys general, filed briefs urging the Court to take up these cases.
States defending the restrictions say their laws comply with the Court’s recent precedents and argue that features such as high-capacity magazines fall outside core Second Amendment protection for weapons commonly used in self-defense. "Washington’s law is consistent with an unbroken tradition of weapons restrictions," one state brief argues.
What The Justice Department Says
The Justice Department told the Court that while there is "some disagreement" among lower courts about the felon-in-possession statute, a revitalized administrative pathway allowing some felons to seek restoration of firearms rights from the federal government may reduce or eliminate any circuit split going forward.
Possible outcomes: This wave of petitions could prompt significant rulings clarifying how the historical-tradition test applies to modern weapons and to categories of people barred from gun possession—or the Court could again defer action while lower courts continue to weigh in.
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