Supreme Court Denies Review in Felon, Indictment and DUI Gun-Ban Challenges, Adds Solicitor General to Dec. 2 AR-15 Argument

The Supreme Court denied review on Nov. 9, 2026 in a set of Second Amendment challenges to federal and state firearm prohibitions, its order list shows, and in the same orders granted the Solicitor General’s motions to take part in the Dec. 2 argument over semiautomatic rifle bans in Viramontes v. Cook County, No. 25-238, and Grant v. Higgins, No. 25-566.

Four of the denied petitions attacked federal statutes. In Foster v. United States, No. 26-5672, Isaac Foster’s petition from the Second Circuit asked “whether 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) violates the Second Amendment on its face or as applied to Petitioner because the federal government may not permanently disarm citizens whose prior felony convictions were for nonviolent offenses only.” The government waived a response, the case was distributed for the Nov. 6 conference and the Court denied it Nov. 9, per the docket. Richard Barge’s petition from the Seventh Circuit, No. 26-5688, raised the same felon-in-possession statute as applied to “a decade old nonviolent drug distribution conviction” after a conditional guilty plea, and its docket shows the same waiver and denial.

Delbert Tyler Trevino’s petition from the Tenth Circuit, No. 26-5629, asked “whether 18 U.S.C. § 922(n)’s prohibition on the receipt of firearms and ammunition while under indictment violates the Second Amendment.” Trevino had been indicted by a state grand jury in El Paso, Texas, for three non-violent felonies, car theft, drug possession and possessing others’ identifying information, before the federal charge, and the docket records the Nov. 9 denial. Willie Richard Minor’s petition from the First Circuit, No. 25-7656, out of the District of Maine, asked whether the Second Amendment protects domestic violence misdemeanants from a lifetime firearm ban where there has been no judicial finding of a credible threat to another’s safety. The government filed a brief in opposition Oct. 5 after the Court requested a response, and the docket shows the petition denied Nov. 9.

The fifth case came from a state court. Jackson W. Holloway’s petition, No. 26-300, challenged the Washington Supreme Court’s June 11, 2026 decision in No. 103799-6 upholding the state’s ban on firearm possession after a second misdemeanor conviction within seven years for driving under the influence, codified at RCW 9.41.040(2)(a)(i)(D). The petition asked whether that “total ban” violates the Second Amendment. Washington Attorney General Nicholas W. Brown waived a response, and the docket shows the denial on Nov. 9.

A denial of certiorari leaves the lower court’s judgment in place and decides nothing on the merits, so each of the five prohibitions stands as the court below applied it.

In the two rifle-ban cases, the order list grants “the motions of the Solicitor General for leave to participate in oral argument as amicus curiae and for divided argument,” putting the federal government at the lectern alongside the challengers on Dec. 2. Cook County’s Nov. 5 suggestion that Viramontes is moot after its lead petitioner moved to withdraw remains pending before the Court, and the argument is set for December 2, 2026.