Overview
- The Department of Justice filed federal complaints in early July asking courts to block enforcement of California’s AB1127 and Virginia’s SB749, which restrict certain semiautomatic pistols and AR-15-style rifles and magazines.
- The DOJ brought both cases under 34 U.S.C. §12601, a law that lets the United States seek equitable relief against government practices that deprive people of constitutional rights, and asked for injunctions to stop state enforcement.
- The complaints invoke the Supreme Court’s Bruen framework, arguing the covered guns are ‘‘in common use’’ for lawful purposes and saying the laws cannot meet the historical-tradition test judges now apply.
- Virginia faces mixed enforcement: its ban was set to take effect July 1 but some state-court injunctions already block parts of it, while California’s dealer sales ban and challenge to the Handgun Roster took effect July 1 and are now the target of the federal suit.
- The cases are led by the DOJ Civil Rights Division and come as the Supreme Court prepares to review major assault-weapons cases, a development that could decide whether state bans of this kind survive nationwide.