SCOTUS Put America’s Rifle on the Calendar: December 2, One Hour

The Supreme Court’s official calendar for the session beginning November 30, 2026, sets Wednesday, December 2 for the consolidated AR-15 cases: Viramontes v. Cook County, No. 25-238, and Grant v. Higgins, No. 25-566. One hour for argument. That is the Court’s paper, not a press release. The government’s brief captions the Connecticut case Eddie Grant, Jr., et al. v. Ronnell Higgins.

The Justice Department filed a merits amicus supporting the petitioners. Counsel of record is Solicitor General D. John Sauer. Assistant Attorneys General Harmeet K. Dhillon and Brett A. Shumate signed with him. The question presented: “Whether a categorical ban on the possession of AR-15 semiautomatic rifles infringes the right to keep and bear arms guaranteed by the Second Amendment.”

From the brief: the Second Amendment is among the “fundamental rights necessary to our system of ordered liberty.” Millions of Americans exercise that right by owning an AR-15 rifle, “the most popular rifle in the country.” “Yet the State of Connecticut and Cook County, Illinois, have made the possession of AR-15s a crime. Those bans are unconstitutional.”

This is not the September 4 states’ amicus already on this site. This is the clock, plus the United States telling the Court the bans fail. Argument is December 2. A decision often lands months later. The questions the justices ask that morning will tell the country whether “in common use” still means what Heller said when the arm is the rifle Americans actually bought.