WASHINGTON – Gun rights will be in the Supreme Court's sights this term after all.

The justices Monday kept a case about a New York City gun control regulation on its 2019 docket despite action by the city and state to erase the regulation from the books.

The court's refusal to dismiss the case represents a temporary victory for proponents of gun rights, who hope the high court will go beyond the letter of the law and expand Second Amendment protections from the home to public places.

But the court still may decide to declare the case moot after hearing oral arguments in December, particularly after mass shootings this summer in Texas, Ohio and elsewhere.

Since establishing a national right to possess guns at home for self-defense in 2008 and extending that ruling to the states in 2010, the court has refused to re-enter the gun debate. In the meantime, most lower courts have upheld state and local restrictions on gun ownership.

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The high court has let stand Chicago's semiautomatic weapons ban and a variety of prohibitions against carrying guns in public, from New Jersey to California. It has refused to second-guess age limits for carrying guns in Texas and requirements for disabling or locking up guns when not in use in San Francisco.

New York City's ban on transporting legally owned guns outside city limits appeared to go too far, at least for some justices. They agreed in January to hear a challenge mounted by gun rights groups. That prompted gun control groups to work with the city and state to get the ban rescinded rather than risk a loss in court.

The prospect of the court expanding gun rights already had set off a partisan dispute in the Senate. Five Democrats, led by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., filed a brief urging the court to dismiss the case, or voters might demand that it be "restructured." That was interpreted by many as a threat to pack the court with additional justices if Democrats win the White House and Senate.

In response, all 53 Republicans sent a letter to the court complaining that Democrats "openly threatened this court with political retribution."

"The implication is as plain as day: 'Dismiss this case, or we’ll pack the court.'" they wrote.

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There are other gun cases pending in lower courts, including laws banning assault weapons and restricting guns in public, but they are less likely to reach the Supreme Court during the term that began Monday.

Tops among them is a challenge to New Jersey's law requiring gun owners to prove their need to carry firearms in public. A similar challenge is pending to public carry rules in Boston and Brookline, Mass.

Several states, including California and New York, have such requirements, and lower courts generally have upheld them under the Supreme Court's precedents. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit struck down Washington, D.C.'s restrictions in 2017, creating a split among federal appeals courts.

Also pending at the Supreme Court are cases challenging a federal ban on interstate handgun sales and California's ban on handguns that don't meet the state's design requirements.

It's far less likely that the high court will enter the debate over bans on assault weapons, such as those used in most mass shootings. Lower courts from Massachusetts to California have upheld such bans.