How the Supreme Court’s ‘Long Conference’ Could Add Several Second Amendment Cases to Its Docket

Once in a while the Supreme Court holds a "long conference," a full meeting of all nine justices that can process as many as 2,000 petitions to hear cases. Decisions made there determine which disputes reach the Court's merits calendar and which die at the petition stage. For people tracking gun-law litigation, that conference can add several Second Amendment cases at once.

Which Second Amendment matters are in play

• Viramontes v. Cook County: The Court has already agreed to hear this challenge to a Cook County ban on modern semiautomatic firearms and set oral argument for Dec. 2. That case is the headline matter coming before the Court's December arguments.

• Waiting periods (Beckwith v. Frey and related rulings): Beckwith challenges Maine's three-day waiting period. The First Circuit upheld Maine's law, while the Tenth Circuit struck down a different waiting period in August 2025. Those divergent appellate rulings make waiting-period challenges candidates for Supreme Court review.

• Stun-gun bans: Petitioners asked the Supreme Court to review a federal appeals court decision that they say ignored the Court's 2016 per curiam Caetano ruling, which held a stun-gun ban unconstitutional on Second Amendment grounds. A petition filed in July presses the Court to resolve whether lower courts are applying that precedent.

• Amendment rights by refusing to recognize his out-of-state concealed-carry permit. That factual posture raises cross-jurisdictional questions states and lower courts are now splitting on.

When federal appeals courts reach different conclusions on the same legal issue, the Supreme Court is more likely to grant review to resolve the conflict. The long conference is where justices identify those conflicts and decide quickly whether to take up cases that would harmonize federal law. Several of the gun-related petitions before the Court involve such splits, which is why observers expect multiple grants are possible.

• Oct. 5 order list: The Court will publish which petitions it accepted and which it declined on that date. That list will show whether the long conference produced new Second Amendment dockets beyond Viramontes.

• December argument calendar: With Viramontes set for Dec. 2, check how additional grants, if any, are scheduled and whether any of the pending petitions are consolidated with already-granted cases.