Supreme Court Gun Cases: What the September 28 Long Conference Decides

Last updated: September 10, 2026 · Originally published September 9, 2026

The AR-15 case is not the most consequential thing the Supreme Court does this month. On Monday, September 28, nine justices meet privately and dispose of the petitions that stacked up over the summer recess. Four Second Amendment petitions are on that list. Three of them are about magazines.

A Supreme Court gun case usually reaches the justices through the long conference, the single September meeting where the Court clears its summer backlog. For October Term 2026, that conference falls on September 28. The Court already granted the rifle question in June. What it does with the magazine question on September 28 will shape gun law in more than a dozen states.

What the Long Conference Is

The Court recesses at the end of June and does not sit again until the first Monday in October. Petitions keep arriving. They pile up.

The long conference is the cleanup. Justices work through hundreds of petitions in one sitting and issue an order list a few days later. Most petitions die there. A handful get granted. A few get relisted for another look.

Now, three magazine petitions were held over from the June 30 cleanup conference rather than denied. Held over is not the same as denied. It means the justices wanted to see how the lower courts moved before acting, and the lower courts have moved.

The Four Gun Cases on the September 28 List

One rifle case is already granted. Three magazine petitions are pending.

Viramontes v. Cook County and Grant v. Higgins — already granted

The Court granted certiorari on June 30, 2026 in Viramontes v. Cook County, No. 25-238, out of the Seventh Circuit. It consolidated the case with Grant v. Higgins, No. 25-566, out of the Second Circuit, for one hour of argument. The question presented reads: whether the Second and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee the right to possess AR-15 platform and similar semiautomatic rifles.

That is the whole question. No balancing test, no interest weighing. Are these arms, or are they not?

I covered the grant when it came down in June and explained what the Court agreeing to hear the AR-15 question decides. Nothing has changed on that front. The case is set. Only the calendar is open.

Duncan v. Bonta, No. 25-198

California caps magazines at 10 rounds. Duncan challenges that cap. It arrives from the Ninth Circuit with a sharp en banc dissent behind it, and it has been relisted repeatedly since January.

Gator’s Custom Guns v. Washington, No. 25-153

Washington bans the manufacture, sale, and distribution of magazines over 10 rounds. Possession stays legal. That makes Gator’s broader than the possession cases, because a ruling would reach the commercial pipeline that supplies every state.

NAGR v. Lamont, No. 25-421

Connecticut bans both the rifles and the magazines. The question presented pairs them: whether a ban on possessing AR-15-style rifles and magazines holding more than 10 rounds violates the Second Amendment. The Court held it over instead of granting it alongside Viramontes. Pairing the two questions in one case is still on the table if the justices want it.

Why the AR-15 Case Is Missing From the October Calendar

The Court released its October 2026 argument calendar on August 4. Seven cases fill the session beginning October 5. None of them is Viramontes.

That is procedure, not a signal. Merits briefing runs on a fixed schedule after a grant, and a late-June grant does not produce a complete record by early October. Argument is now set for 2 December 2026, one hour for the consolidated cases, with a decision expected by the end of June 2027.

So the AR-15 ruling is roughly ten months out. The magazine decision point is 19 days out. That gap is the reason September 28 deserves your attention more than the argument calendar does.

The Circuit Split Driving the Magazine Cases

The Supreme Court grants review most reliably when federal appeals courts disagree. On magazines, they now openly disagree.

The Third Circuit ruled en banc on July 17, 2026 in Cheeseman v. Davenport and struck down New Jersey’s magazine ban. Eight days earlier, on July 9, the Seventh Circuit went the other way in Barnett v. Raoul and upheld Illinois’s equivalent law. The Ninth Circuit decision underneath Duncan sits with Illinois.

Same constitutional question. Opposite answers. Different rules depending on which side of a state line you stand on.

New Jersey got a stay from the Third Circuit on August 4, so its ban stays enforceable while the state prepares a petition due by October 15. That petition would hand the justices a fourth magazine vehicle. It also means the Third Circuit’s reasoning is binding circuit law even while the ruling itself is paused. We walked through that decision when it landed in our coverage of the Third Circuit striking down New Jersey’s ban.

Where the state fights stand right now

State-level litigation keeps feeding the same pipeline. A federal judge blocked Virginia’s ban statewide this summer, and a separate injunction paused Maryland’s handgun restrictions. Every one of those records becomes a citation in the briefs the justices read on September 28. Our sister site Guns & Gadgets Daily covered the ATF rule changes reshaping the same regulations from the bench side.

What to Watch Between Now and September 28

1. Friday, September 4. The Court issues a summer order list. These lists handle motions and rehearing petitions, not merits grants, so do not read a magazine denial into it.
2. Thursday, October 15. New Jersey’s petition in Cheeseman comes due, subject to a possible 60-day extension.
3. Monday, September 28. The long conference. The justices grant, deny, or relist the three magazine petitions.
4. Early October. The order list from that conference publishes. That document is where you learn the answer.

What a September 28 Grant Would Mean for Gun Owners

A grant on any magazine petition puts standard-capacity magazines in front of the Court in the same term as the rifle question. That is the outcome gun owners in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York should want, because it forces a merits answer instead of another decade of circuit-by-circuit litigation.

A relist means the justices are still deciding. It is common, and it is not a loss.

A denial would leave the circuit split standing and leave state magazine limits enforceable where they exist. It would also leave the rifle question alive in Viramontes, which reaches the same firearms from a different angle.

Remember, nothing about your state’s current law changes on September 28. Petitions are about what the Court will hear, not about what is legal tomorrow. If you own magazines in a restricted state, the rules that applied on Wednesday still apply on Tuesday.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the Supreme Court long conference in 2026?

Monday, September 28, 2026, the week before October Term 2026 opens on October 5. It is the closed-door meeting where the justices clear the petitions that piled up over the summer, and the order list that comes out of it normally publishes in the first days of October.

Which gun cases are pending at the September 28 conference?

Three magazine petitions: Duncan v. Bonta (No. 25-198, California), Gator’s Custom Guns v. Washington (No. 25-153), and NAGR v. Lamont (No. 25-421, Connecticut). The justices held all three over from the June 30 cleanup conference instead of denying them, which is the part that matters.

When will the Supreme Court hear the AR-15 case?

Not in October. Argument is set for December 2, 2026. Viramontes v. Cook County and Grant v. Higgins were granted June 30, 2026 and consolidated for one hour of argument, and the December 2026 argument calendar put them on that date. Expect a decision by the end of June 2027.

Does a held-over petition mean the Court will deny it?

No. A hold means the justices want more information first, usually a related ruling from a lower court. Petitions get relisted many times on the way to a grant. Denial and relisting look alike on the docket page and mean opposite things.

What is the circuit split over magazine bans?

The Third Circuit struck down New Jersey’s magazine ban en banc on July 17, 2026 in Cheeseman v. Davenport, the Seventh Circuit upheld Illinois’s comparable law on July 9, 2026 in Barnett v. Raoul, and the Ninth Circuit sided with Illinois in the decision under Duncan. Two appeals courts answering the same question opposite ways is the strongest argument for review the Court ever sees.

How to Read the Order List

The conference itself is invisible. No transcript, no vote count, no explanation. What you get instead is an order list, and the vocabulary in that document tells you everything.

Certiorari granted means the Court will hear the case. Merits briefing opens and argument follows, usually five to seven months later.

Certiorari denied ends the petition. It is not a ruling on the merits and sets no precedent, though the practical effect is that the lower court decision stands.

Rescheduled or a fresh distributed for conference entry means the petition moves to a later date without a vote. Relisted means the justices discussed it and want another look. Relists frequently come before grants, and they sometimes come before a dissent from denial written by a justice who wanted the case taken.

Watch for a fourth possibility on the magazine petitions: GVR, short for grant, vacate, and remand. If the Court decides Viramontes first, it can send the magazine cases back to the circuits with instructions to reconsider under whatever standard the AR-15 ruling sets. That outcome delays a direct magazine answer but can still take the bans apart below.

Check the docket yourself instead of waiting on a headline. Every filing is public. Search the docket number at supremecourt.gov, read the Court’s own description of its conference and order-list procedures, or follow the petition-level tracking for Gator’s Custom Guns. Each case page at supremecourt.gov lists every entry in order, and the entries show up there before most outlets write them up.

Final Thoughts

The rifle question is settled onto the docket and will take until next summer. The magazine question is unsettled, faster, and decided behind a closed door in 25 days.

Nine people, one room, no cameras, no argument, no press. Four petitions from Americans who own lawful property their neighbors two states over own freely. On September 28 the Court decides which of those Americans gets a hearing. I would take the bet that at least one of them does.

Freedom’s Lodge tracks federal and state Second Amendment litigation daily. Docket numbers, dates, and questions presented in this article were verified against the Supreme Court’s public docket and argument calendar as of September 3, 2026. Court schedules change; confirm any date against supremecourt.gov before relying on it.

James Nicholas

NFA Firearms Manufacturer · Professional Gunsmith for over 20 years · Firearms Writer, Photographer and Firearms Expert. The XDMAN has a talent for taking complex firearms subject matter and breaking it down into an easy-to-understand format that all experience levels can relate to.

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