The Supreme Court opened its October 2026 Term by refusing to hear 48 firearms cases. On the October 5, 2026 orders list, the Justices denied certiorari in dozens of Second Amendment petitions. Those denials leave core gun-rights questions off the docket, including challenges to the federal felon-in-possession statute and Minnesota’s refusal to honor carry permits issued by other states.
The felon-in-possession challenges asked the Court to review the federal ban on firearm possession by people with felony convictions. The Court denied review. The statute remains in force. Possession remains a federal crime for that class of Americans. The lower-court results that left the ban in place were left undisturbed.
The same list left Minnesota’s non-reciprocity policy intact. Petitioners sought review of the State’s refusal to honor out-of-state carry permits. The Supreme Court denied certiorari. A permit lawfully issued by another state still has no force inside Minnesota. Reciprocity as a Second Amendment claim stays off the Court’s calendar.
A denial of certiorari is not a decision on the merits. The October 5, 2026 mass denial does not interpret the Second Amendment. It does not hold the felon ban constitutional. It does not bless Minnesota’s permit policy. It leaves existing judgments in place and keeps those questions off the docket for now.
Forty-eight firearms cases is a volume, not a footnote. Dozens of Second Amendment petitions ended on the same orders list. Permit holders who travel, Americans barred by the federal felon statute, and every other party in those cases remain under the rules that governed the day before the denials issued. The Constitution still enumerates the right to keep and bear arms. The statutes and state policies that burden it remain because the Court would not hear the challenges.
Lower courts will keep applying the felon-in-possession statute. Minnesota will keep refusing to honor out-of-state carry permits. New petitions will be filed. None of that is a substitute for a Supreme Court judgment that the Second Amendment constrains Congress and the States.
The Justices took an oath to the Constitution, not to the federal criminal code and not to any state’s carry map. Until the Court grants a case that tests the felon ban or sister-state permit recognition, those questions remain below. The right did not shrink on October 5, 2026. The Court declined to take it up from the highest bench.
References
- https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/100526zor_2a34.pdf
- https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/ordersofthecourt/
- https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/10/court-declines-to-hear-cases-on-lets-go-brandon-sweatshirts-felons-second-amendment-rights-covid/
- https://firearmslaw.duke.edu/2026/10/scotus-gun-watch-10-5-2026
- https://bearingarms.com/camedwards/2026/10/05/scotus-cert-denials-a-mixed-bag-for-second-amendment-fans-n1234027