By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
For the second time in two years, the Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to grant certiorari in their continuing challenge of Maryland’s ban on so-called “assault weapons.”
The sister organizations, which have become rising stars in the gun rights movement during the past few years of upheaval at the National Rifle Association, challenged the Maryland gun ban almost immediately after it became law.
According to a statement to the media, SAF and CCRKBA are joined in this petition by the Firearms Policy Coalition, Field Traders, LLC, and three private citizens, David Snope, Micah Schaefer and Dominic Bianchi, the latter for whom the case is titled. The case is known as Bianchi v. Frosh.
The Supreme Court in late June 2022 granted certiorari in the case, and vacated the earlier ruling by a lower federal court which left the ban intact, and then remanded the case back to the Fourth Circuit for further action based on guidelines established in the 2022 Bruen ruling. That decision rejected the two-tiered approach to Second Amendment cases created by lower circuit courts following the Heller and McDonald rulings. The 6-3 Bruen decision rejected the two-step approach, declared the Second Amendment was no longer to be treated as a “second class” right, and threw liberal dogma into a cocked hat.
Since being remanded back to the Fourth Circuit, the Bianchi case was fully briefed and argued before a three-judge panel for the Circuit. Inexplicably, over a year after the oral argument was held and with no panel opinion issued, the Fourth Circuit sua sponte elected to hear the case en banc, further delaying the exercise of a fundamental right and seemingly to prevent publication of an opinion that favors the plaintiffs,” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut.
“Seeking certiorari before judgment is an extraordinary remedy reserved for cases of imperative public importance,” he said.
“It is clear to us this case must be decided by the Supreme Court,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “The type of modern semiautomatic rifle banned in Maryland is in common use across the country, and is the most popular rifle in America. Yet, the Fourth Circuit and other courts of appeals have strained credulity to uphold such bans in the wake of the high court’s ruling in Bruen. This issue must be resolved.”
Similar cases are pending in the Ninth Circuit (California) and Seventh Circuit (Illinois).
“The Fourth Circuit’s decision to hear this case en banc, over a year after it was argued before a panel and with no published opinion, seems to imply the court desired to take this case from a panel with which it disagreed,” noted SAF’s Kraut. “The unconstitutionality of Maryland’s Assault Weapons Ban has been apparent since it was passed into law, as Heller already provided the proper analysis, which the Fourth Circuit previously ignored to shield the law from a swift death. Intervention from the Supreme Court is necessary to restore order and force the lower courts to properly address this issue in a timely manner, as each day the Plaintiffs rights are being infringed upon.”
