The Supreme Court agreed June 30 to decide whether the Second Amendment protects AR-15-style rifles, granting cert in two state assault-weapons ban cases for fall 2026 argument.
The Supreme Court granted certiorari June 30 in two consolidated challenges to state semiautomatic rifle bans, agreeing to decide whether AR-15-platform and similar rifles are protected under the Second and Fourteenth Amendments [1]. The Court framed a single question for review: whether such firearms, which petitioners argue are in common use, fall within constitutional protection [1]. Oral argument is expected during the fall 2026 term [1].
The two cases, Viramontes v. Cook County and Grant v. Higgins, target distinct state laws. Viramontes challenges an Illinois ban enforced at the Cook County level, while Grant challenges Connecticut's semiautomatic rifle prohibition [1] [2]. The cert grant consolidates them for joint briefing and argument before the Supreme Court in Washington [1]. The Court's order was issued among a broader set of cert grants released the same day [1].
The doctrinal stakes are substantial. No assault-weapons case has previously reached the merits stage at the Supreme Court. The outcome could affect bans in at least eight states [1]. The grants arrive in the wake of the Court's 2022 decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, which established a text-and-history framework for evaluating Second Amendment claims, and the Court's 2025 decision in Snope v. Brown, in which Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that the Court should and presumably would address the AR-15 question in short order [1]. The Court has now done so on the precise schedule Kavanaugh anticipated.
The central legal dispute turns on whether semiautomatic rifles configured like the AR-15 qualify as arms "in common use" for lawful purposes, the standard derived from District of Columbia v. Heller. States defending the bans have argued that such weapons are categorically dangerous and unusual, placing them outside Heller's protection. Petitioners counter that tens of millions of such rifles are owned by civilians, satisfying the common-use threshold as a matter of fact [2].
Merits briefing will proceed on a schedule the Court has yet to announce. Argument is projected for the October 2026 term, with a decision expected by June 2027 [1]. Advocacy organizations on both sides of the gun-rights debate are expected to file amicus briefs in significant volume.