(WTTW News)

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a series of challenges to Illinois’ assault weapons ban — for now — but a pair of justices indicated a willingness to take up the case in the future.

The high court on Tuesday issued an order in which it denied the petitions for writs of certiorari in a half dozen cases after the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals last November upheld the ban, writing at the time that “(e)ven the most important personal freedoms have their limits.”

While the petitions were rejected, Justice Samuel Alito indicated he would take up the case, while Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that “if the Seventh Circuit ultimately allows Illinois to ban America’s most common civilian rifle, we can — and should — review that decision once the cases reach a final judgment.”

“The Court must not permit ‘the Seventh Circuit [to] relegat[e] the Second Amendment to a second-class right,” Thomas continued.

Illinois passed the sweeping ban on guns it classifies as assault weapons, as well as 15-round handgun magazines and 10-round long-gun magazines, after a shooter used an AR-15-style rifle to kill seven people at a Highland Park July 4 parade in 2022.

Since the Protect Illinois Communities Act was signed into law in January 2023, it has been illegal to buy or sell guns and accessories listed in the act. People who previously owned guns subject to the law are allowed to keep them, but were required to register with the Illinois State Police by the end of 2023.

“Everyone can agree that a personal handgun, used for self-defense, is one of those Arms that law-abiding citizens must be free to ‘keep and bear.’ Everyone can also agree, we hope, that a nuclear weapon such as the now-retired M388 Davy Crockett system, with its 51-pound W54 warhead, can be re-served for the military, even though it is light enough for one person to carry,” the Seventh Circuit wrote, funding that the guns and high-capacity magazines regulated under the Protecting Illinois Communities Act “lie on the military side of that line and thus are not within the class of Arms protected by the Second Amendment.”

Thomas on Tuesday called this definition “nonsensical.”

“In my view, Illinois’ ban is ‘highly suspect because it broadly prohibits common semiautomatic firearms used for lawful purposes,’” he wrote, citing his own dissenting opinion in Friedman v. City of Highland Park, a 2015 case in which the Supreme Court denied a challenge to Highland Park’s own assault weapons ban.

“It is difficult to see how the Seventh Circuit could have concluded that the most widely owned semiautomatic rifles,” Thomas wrote, referencing AR-15 rifles, “are not ‘Arms’ protected by the Second Amendment.”

Following the order announcement, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said his office will “continue to vigorously defend its constitutionality as litigation returns to the lower courts.”

“Assault weapons were designed for military use, and Illinois residents can be assured the Protect Illinois Communities Act will help prevent these weapons of war from being used to cause devastation in our schools, places of worship and recreation spaces,” he said in a statement. “The law is an important part of what must be a multifaceted approach to addressing gun violence, and I am pleased it remains in effect in Illinois.”

Amanda Vinicky contributed to this report.