The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear arguments in a pair of significant Second Amendment challenges involving certain semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines, a move that leaves both of those laws in place.

WASHINGTON — A closely divided Supreme Court refused Monday to hear a 2nd Amendment challenge to the bans on semiautomatic rifles in Maryland, California and eight other blue states.

After considering them at 15 consecutive conferences, the Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up two challenges to gun-control laws in Maryland and Rhode Island. In each case, three justices indicated