…ummm, nothing yet.

According to the Associated Press, the Supreme Court failed to reach a decision on whether or not to hear a case related to the District’s gun laws. Though a verdict from last week’s conference discussion was possible today, it seems that the nine justices haven’t yet decided if they want to take the case, which stems from a March decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District Circuit that ruled that the city’s restrictive gun laws were unconstitutional. It takes four justices to agree to hear a case; not all decisions to hear a case are resolved in the first conference. The next time a decision might be announced in November 26.

According to SCOTUSBlog, the justices might either want more time to consider the case or are working to re-write the question they will eventually have to rule on:

The Court, of course, does not explain inaction. But among the possible reasons for delaying the case are these: one or more Justices simply asked for more time to consider the two cases; the Court may be rewriting the question or questions it will be willing to review — especially in view of the disagreement between the two sides on what should be at issue; the Court may have voted initially to deny review of one or both cases and one or more Justices are writing a dissent from the denial. The appeal in 07-290 (District of Columbia v. Heller) raises the key issue about the Second Amendment’s meaning — that is, whether it guarantees an individual right to have a gun for private use, at least in one’s home — and the appeal in 07-335 (Parker v. District of Columbia) poses a question about who may bring lawsuits to challenge laws before they are actively enforced. Together, the cases thus present a somewhat complex mix for the Court, and it perhaps was not much of a surprise that no order issued on Tuesday. At no point is there likely to be an answer to what happened to bring about the delay.

Mayor Adrian Fenty, Attorney General Linda Singer and Police Chief Cathy Lanier are holding a press conference in about 15 minutes concerning the very gun law the Supreme Court may eventually consider. If anything of interest comes out of that, we’ll have it later in the day.