Published July 24, 2026 at 5:04 AM ET · Updated July 24, 2026 at 6:27 AM ET
Court injunction leaves open legal questions over Virginia's AR-15 ban.
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A court injunction involving Virginia's AR-15 ban leaves open several legal questions about the firearm restrictions. The future of the state ban remains unresolved following the injunction.
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⚖ The Constitutional Angle
Caetano held the Second Amendment reaches all bearable arms, including those not existing at the founding, and that unusual cannot mean merely not common in 1789. Bruen requires the government to justify any regulation by historical tradition. That test governs AR-15 bans, but the Supreme Court has granted cert on that exact question and not decided it, so the law remains unsettled.
Jaime Caetano v. Massachusetts 577 U.S. 411 (2016)
Vote: Unanimous per curiam (8-member Court, post-Scalia); no recorded vote split · Opinion: Per curiam (unsigned)
Summarily vacating the SJC's judgment without briefing on the merits or oral argument, the Court held that each of the SJC's three rationales contradicted Heller: the Second Amendment extends prima facie to all bearable arms, including those not in existence at the founding; 'unusual' cannot be equated with 'not in common use in 1789'; and protection is not limited to weapons useful in warfare. The case was remanded for further proceedings; the Court did not itself hold the Massachusetts ban unconstitutional.
New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Kevin P. Bruen, Superintendent of New York State Police 597 U.S. 1 (2022)
Vote: 6-3 · Opinion: Thomas
New York's requirement that applicants demonstrate 'proper cause' — a special need for self-protection distinguishable from the general community — to obtain an unrestricted public-carry license violates the Fourteenth Amendment by preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in public. The Court held the Second Amendment protects a right to carry handguns publicly for self-defense, and rejected the two-step means-end framework lower courts had applied after Heller.
Precedent facts from the PW Law Library — primary-source verified & independently audited
