SCOTUS Skips AR and Mag Ban Case (for now)

There has been a lot of hoopla over the 8 to 1 decision to not take up the Illinois and other state AR gun and mag bans. On the surface this may seem like a bad decision. However, this is more of a procedural decision than an outright failure to act by the SCOTUS.

These cases were brought before the SCOTUS prior to ruling by the district courts. SCOTUS basically said they won’t be taking up any case dealing with “assault weapon” bans until final judgment has been issued by a district court and a court of appeals has had the opportunity to review that decision.

What this means for the 2A is that once these cases have gone through the process, then and only then will the SCOTUS determine if they will take them up. This was a long shot to try to accelerate a decision since the district courts seem all to happy to drag their feet on hearing and ruling on these cases. Unfortunately the SCOTUS missed an opportunity to tell the district courts to stop playing games and to move ahead with the cases. However, the district courts in question are likely trying to drag this out in hopes of getting new Supreme Court Justices because they know with the current make up of the bench they will be overturned.