Against the backdrop of a nation struggling again with the tragedy of a school shooting and a debate over guns, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in a blistering dissent Tuesday, accused the U.S. Supreme Court of making the right to keep and bear arms “a constitutional orphan.”

The high court declined, without comment, to review a challenge to California’s 10-day waiting period for the purchase of firearms. In the case Silvester v. Becerra, two lawful gun owners and two nonprofits challenged the constitutionality of the state’s 10-day waiting period as applied to “subsequent purchasers” who already own a firearm or have a license to carry a concealed weapon, and who clear a background check in less than 10 days.