Noting just some of the continuing litigation and uncertainty about gun rights after Rahimi

July 10, 2024

This week has brought some new press pieces capturing some of the uncertainty about Second Amendment limits on federal criminal prohibtions of gun possessiom after the Supreme Court’s ruling last month in Rahimi. Here are links to the pieces and excerpts:

From the Washington Post, “The Supreme Court upended gun laws nationwide. Mass confusion has followed.“

[O]n both sides of the gun-control debate, people say the [Rahimi] ruling will do little to ease the confusion and disruption unleashed by the high court’s 2022 historical mandate. Only eight of roughly 500 federal court cases that are challenging the constitutionality of firearms restrictions since the Bruen decision that are being tracked by the gun-control advocacy group Brady involve the law recently upheld by the Supreme Court, according to a Washington Post review of the data. Those opposing gun regulations said they still plan to aggressively target laws that they believe violate the Constitution….

The Post identified about 500 distinct federal challenges under Bruen. Nearly 40 percent of those federal cases involve challenges to laws that keep guns away from people who are charged with or convicted of felonies, according to a review of the data. Roughly 15 percent involve bans on types of firearms such as machine guns, military-like weapons and ghost guns.

From Bloomberg Law, “Law Keeping Guns From Drug Users Gets Fifth Circuit Questioning“:

How the US Supreme Court’s recent decision in US v. Rahimi bears on the constitutionality of a law barring drug users from possessing guns was the focus of questioning by Fifth Circuit judges Tuesday.

“How would the statute operate in a place like Colorado, which has much more liberal marijuana usage laws?” Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt asked the government. “Would the state law have any type of impact, or do we just say anybody who regularly and habitually uses marijuana in the state of Colorado would be a felon under the section?”

“If they possess a firearm, our position is the latter,” said Mahogane Denea Reed, an attorney for the government. But, Reed said, that could be taken up on an as-applied challenge and not resolved in the case before the court.

“With the benefit of Rahimi from the Supreme Court, they want us to look at this from every different point of view that we can imagine,” Engelhardt responded.

The questioning came as the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit heard oral arguments in the government’s appeal of a district court ruling that the law, Section 922(g)(3), is unconstitutional. US District Judge Kathleen Cardone’s 2023 order tossed a federal indictment against Paola Connelly on Second Amendment grounds.

A few (of many) prior related posts (recent and past):