Officials in Illinois and Connecticut have filed opening briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court, outlining why their bans on semi-automatic firearms comply with the Constitution.
The Supreme Court previously agreed to take up two lawsuits brought by gun rights groups: Viramontes v. Cook County and Grant v. Higgins. Both cases challenge government prohibitions on widely owned modern rifles, such as the AR-15.
The Viramontes suit, first filed in 2021, targets Cook County’s local ban on modern semi-automatic rifles, a measure that later served as a blueprint for Illinois’ statewide ban. In Grant, plaintiffs are challenging Connecticut’s statutory ban on specific semi-automatic rifles named directly in the law, as well as models that include certain physical features…