The Department of Justice filed suit against Virginia on July 1, asking a federal court to block the Commonwealth's assault firearms law before it could take full effect, while a separate three-judge panel rejected this week Virginia's attempt to consolidate four active state-court challenges into a single proceeding. AmmoLand News first reported both developments.

The DOJ complaint, filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, targets Senate Bill 749, which prohibits the manufacture, sale, purchase, importation, and transfer of certain semiautomatic rifles — including AR-15-pattern platforms — and large-capacity magazines. The filing argues the law is incompatible with the Second Amendment under the framework the U.S. Supreme Court established in Bruen v. New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, which requires courts to evaluate firearm regulations against the nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon had telegraphed the suit when SB 749 became law earlier this year. The same day, the DOJ filed a companion suit against California challenging that state's restrictions on semiautomatic handguns and its handgun roster.

The federal filing adds a seventh active legal challenge to SB 749. Four state-court cases — Santolla v. Katz, Crump v. Katz, Curtis v. Katz, and Black v. Hook — are already generating injunction rulings across Virginia's circuit courts, and the NRA and Virginia Shooting Sports Association secured a broader statewide preliminary injunction in federal court on June 29 in a separate proceeding.

On July 6, the three-judge panel appointed by the Virginia Supreme Court to consider consolidating the four state cases declined to do so. The panel found the Commonwealth had not met the legal standard required to transfer cases to a single forum, noting that three of the four circuits had already heard and ruled on preliminary injunction motions. The cases also raise materially different legal theories: Second Amendment history-and-tradition claims in Black v. Hook, statutory interpretation questions about multicaliber magazines and semiautomatic shotguns in Crump, a state constitutional militia-clause argument in Curtis, and a combination of Second Amendment and public-carry challenges in Santolla. Forcing them into a single court, the panel concluded, would not achieve the efficiency the state sought.

The current injunction map as of early July: courts in Washington County and Lancaster County have issued preliminary injunctions blocking Virginia State Police from enforcing SB 749 in their jurisdictions; a Spotsylvania court denied an injunction; and a Fauquier County hearing has not yet been scheduled. The Virginia Attorney General's office has maintained publicly that SB 749 remains in effect across most of the state, a position the counties with active injunctions dispute.

The next major procedural milestones are the Fauquier hearing, potential appellate review of the existing injunctions, and the federal court's response to the DOJ complaint. Virginia and California are now fighting the same law enforcement agency that created the background-check framework they rely on — a posture that gun-rights groups say underscores how far federal policy has shifted toward the lawful owner community under the current administration.

Lastly, I think the irony of Virginia having the motto "Sic Semper Tyrannis" on it's seal is lost on no-one. Maybe it's time to update that, Virginia?