[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] agreed [order list, PDF] Tuesday to rule on the federal government’s power to regulate certain greenhouse gases. The court granted petitions for certiorari in six related cases, consolidating them and limiting the grant to the following question: “Whether EPA permissibly determined that its regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from new motor vehicles triggered permitting requirements under the Clean Air Act for stationary sources that emit greenhouse gases.” The court also denied three of the nine total petitions challenging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [official website] on certain greenhouse gas regulations.

In Abramski v. United States [docket; cert. petition, PDF] the court will rule on whether a gun buyer’s intent to sell a firearm to another lawful buyer in the future a fact is “material to the lawfulness of the sale” of the firearm under 18 USC § 922(a)(6) [text]. It will also answer the question of whether a gun buyer’s intent to sell a firearm to another lawful buyer in the future is a piece of information “required … to be kept” by a federally licensed firearm dealer under 18 USC § 924(a)(1)(A). There is a circuit split on the first issue, and the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held [opinion, PDF] that disclosure of the actual firearm purchaser is required by law at the time of a firearm purchase.

The court also dismissed [order, PDF] the case of Madigan v. Levin [docket; cert. petition, PDF] as improvidently granted. The court heard arguments [JURIST report] in the case last week.