The Justice Department on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Virginia State Police, alleging that a “newly enacted Virginia law unconstitutionally bans the purchase and sale of ordinary semi-automatic rifles owned by millions of Americans.”
“The Constitution is not a suggestion, and the Second Amendment is not a second-class right,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
“This Justice Department has done more to protect the Second Amendment than any administration in our nation’s history, and we will continue to do so whenever necessary,” he continued.
“On April 10, I promised Governor Spanberger that we would sue Virginia if she signed this unconstitutional weapons ban into law. I keep my promises,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
“Law-abiding Americans should not have to live under threat of criminal sanction for simply exercising their Second Amendment right to possess arms owned by millions of their fellow citizens,” she added.
The Justice Department filed a lawsuit today against the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Virginia State Police alleging that a newly enacted Virginia law unconstitutionally bans the purchase and sale of ordinary semi-automatic rifles owned by millions of Americans.
“The… pic.twitter.com/hZRNnBUhVo
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) July 1, 2026
More from the Justice Department:
The Virginia law makes the commercial purchase of AR-15-style rifles a crime. The AR-15 rifle is the most popular rifle in America. Virginia’s enforcement of the new ban is a pattern or practice of conduct by the commonwealth’s law enforcement officers that deprives the citizens of Virginia of their constitutional right to buy and sell arms protected by the Second Amendment.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider whether bans on AR-15s and similar semiautomatic rifles violate the Second Amendment.
In a brief order, the high court agreed to take up a pair of cases challenging local and state laws banning AR-15s and similar semiautomatic rifles.
CBS News noted:
One involves an ordinance in Cook County, Illinois, and the other centers on a Connecticut law.
In two separate rulings last month, the Supreme Court struck down a law in Hawaii that restricted guns on private property that is open to the public and the high court sided with a Texas man who challenged the federal ban that barred certain drug users from having firearms.
