Why Should Delaware Care?
For nearly two years, a variety of semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines have not been available for sale in Delaware. A court ruling could have reinstated those sales, but the Supreme Court did not decide to take up the case, pushing back to lower courts for more in-depth hearings.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a case that sought to pause Delaware’s assault weapons ban, upholding the First State’s prohibition on certain semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity magazines for now.
The high court refused to hear a lawsuit from Delawareans and gun rights advocacy organizations that questioned whether an infringement of the Second Amendment constituted “irreparable injury” and warranted a preliminary injunction.
The petition, however, did not ask the court to decide if the assault weapons ban is constitutional.
Gun advocates emphasized that the petition to the court was to determine whether the lower courts were wrong to treat the violation of a person’s Second Amendment right differently than other rights, such as freedom of speech.
The court also refused Monday to hear a challenge to Maryland’s handgun qualification law, which is markedly similar to the “permit-to-purchase” law passed in Delaware last year.
Delaware’s ban on assault weapons, and magazines that can hold more than 17 rounds, was signed into law in 2022. The law passed in the wake of deadly mass shootings in an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y.
Gun control advocates and Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the case, describing it as a “huge win” for Delaware. Challengers to the ban were disappointed by the decision but remained steadfast in their efforts to strike down the law.
“Assault weapons and large-capacity magazines are modern tools whose sole purpose is to kill,” Jennings said in a statement reacting to the decision.
The idea that the Founding Founders envisioned unfettered access to AR-15s when they described a “well-regulated militia” is absolute delusion.”
Traci Murphy, executive director of the Coalition for a Safer Delaware, a nonprofit that advocates for gun control measures in the state, applauded the court’s decision and said it demonstrated limits to the Second Amendment.
“Assault weapons are weapons of war and exist only to inflict maximum destruction,” Murphy said in a statement. “There is simply no reason that Delawareans need access to these weapons, and today the Supreme Court confirmed this.”
Following the decision, gun advocates are preparing to bring legal challenges in lower appellate courts to overturn the ban on its constitutionality.
“The case is still very much active,” said Jeff Hague, president of the Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association (DSSA), the local affiliate of the National Rifle Association that first sued the state to halt enforcement of the ban in 2022.
How did we get here?
Four months after the ban became law, the DSSA sued the state of Delaware in an attempt to pause the enforcement of the ban while a judge ruled on its constitutionality. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Andrews denied the request for a preliminary injunction in March 2023.
Then, in July 2024, a Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Andrews’ decision and the case was brought before the Supreme Court in September 2024. The Supreme Court petition bundled a few similar cases brought against Jennings by state residents and gun advocacy groups, including the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) and the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF).
Gun advocates argued that the Third Circuit’s decision runs contrary to other court rulings that found constitutional rights violations do represent “irreparable harm.”
“The Second Amendment is not a second-class right, and courts all across the country agree that constitutional rights violations represent irreparable harm in this context,” Bill Sack, director of legal operations for the Second Amendment Foundation, said in a statement.
“We are disappointed that the Supreme Court elected not to address this issue at the moment.”
Delaware’s ban and the challenges to it come in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. The court’s landmark decision established that citizens have the right to carry firearms outside the home and that states must use clear guidelines to deny someone that right.
The court was slated to consider two other gun rights cases, one in Maryland and one in Rhode Island, during a conference on Friday, Jan. 17. No decision on either case has been made by the court as of Monday, Jan. 20.
The Maryland case questions whether the state’s semiautomatic rifle ban is constitutional, while the Rhode Island case questions whether a confiscatory ban on commonly used magazines violates the Second Amendment.
The Court’s decision to hear those cases could influence the future of Delaware’s ban.
“The Supreme Court’s denial here is far from the end of these cases,” Cody Wisniewski, counsel for FPC and the president of the FPC Action Foundation, said in a statement about the Delaware ban.
“We look forward to returning to the lower courts to strike down these bans once and for all.”