The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has stayed a lawsuit against California’s “assault weapons” ban, waiting to see what SCOTUS decides in related cases it agreed to hear days ago.
Breitbart News noted that on June 30, 2026, SCOTUS granted cert in two cases: Grant v. Higgins and Viramontes v. Cook County. The cases are consolidated and will result in a ruling as to whether AR-15s and similar rifles are protected by the Second and Fourteenth Amendments.
The California case currently before the Ninth Circuit is Miller v. Bonta, and it challenges bans similar to those challenged in Higgins and Viramontes.
Plaintiffs in Miller v. Bonta include the Second Amendment Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition, California Gun Rights Foundation, and private citizens James Miller, Wendy Hauffen, Neil Rutherford, Adrian Sevilla, and Ryan Peterson.
On July 1, 2026, the day after SCOTUS granted cert in the AR-15 cases, the Firearms Policy Coalition posted to X: “The Ninth Circuit is staying our lawsuit challenging California’s “assault weapon” ban pending the result of Viramontes at the Supreme Court.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. He is a lever action man in an AR-15 world. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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