Fifth Circuit Signals Interest in Challenge to Machine-Gun Ban

A majority of the Fifth Circuit’s judges indicated an interest in rehearing a case that would raise the constitutionality of a federal machine-gun ban, even as the appeals court voted not to revisit a challenge to the statute.

The federal appeals court’s active judges in a 10-7 vote Thursday denied full-court review of a panel ruling that rejected a challenge to 18 U.S.C. § 922(o), which makes it illegal “for any person to transfer or possess a machinegun.”

But two of the judges who voted against rehearing expressed a willingness to entertain such a constitutional challenge in the future. “I ...