Justice Clarence Thomas issued a scathing dissent to the court’s decision not to review critical gun cases.

According to The Washington Free Beacon:

Second Amendment advocates were hoping the High Court would take up at least some of the legal challenges to gun-control laws that have passed in New Jersey, California, Maryland, and Massachusetts. Those cases were denied certiorari, meaning the High Court will not take them up. 

The lack of action sparked some justices to dissent. Thomas slammed his colleagues for refusing to take up Rogers v. Grewal, a challenge to New Jersey’s gun-carry law that allows government officials to subjectively deny permits. Thomas—joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh—said the state government’s requirement that residents provide a reason for exercising a constitutional right warranted judicial oversight. 

“This Court would almost certainly review the constitutionality of a law requiring citizens to establish a justifiable need before exercising their free speech rights,” Thomas wrote. “And it seems highly unlikely that the Court would allow a State to enforce a law requiring a woman to provide a justifiable need before seeking an abortion. But today, faced with a petition challenging just such a restriction on citizens’ Second Amendment rights, the Court simply looks the other way.”

The Supreme Court has only ruled in one Second Amendment case since 2011. That 2016 case, Caetano v. Massachusetts, dealt with a law concerning stun guns and other less lethal weapons rather than firearms. Despite having a wealth of cases dealing with federal and state policies and laws, however, the High Court has largely sat out on debates about the Second Amendment. Gun-rights activists accused the Court of failing to protect the Second Amendment and of abdicating its role as a check on legislative and executive overreach. 

The NRA slammed the decision while the anti-gun group Brady United praised the decision.