On June 21, the Supreme Court decided a highly-anticipated Second Amendment case. In United States v. Rahimi, 602 U.S. __ (2024), the Court considered a facial challenge to 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8), which makes it a felony for people subject to certain domestic violence protective orders to possess firearms. Rahimi was the Court’s first opportunity to apply the revolutionary history-focused approach to Second Amendment analysis it announced in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022). In an 8-1 decision, with Chief Justice Roberts writing for the majority, the Court upheld the challenged statute. Several Justices wrote significant concurrences while Justice Thomas, the author of Bruen, dissented. This post summarizes Rahimi, considers whether the case amounts to a retreat from Bruen, and addresses Rahimi’s applicability to North Carolina DVPOs. The post also considers the implications of Rahimi on pending Second Amendment cases, including those challenging felon disqualification.
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Case Summaries: Smith v. Arizona; United States v. Rahimi (SCOTUS)
This post summarizes Smith v. Arizona and United States v. Rahimi from the Supreme Court of the United States, decided on June 21, 2024. These summaries, prepared by Phil Dixon (Smith) and Jeff Welty (Rahimi) will be added to Smith’s Criminal Case Compendium, a free and searchable database of case summaries from 2008 to the present.
Bruen Comes to North Carolina
My colleague Jeff Welty has covered the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in New York Rife and Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022), and subsequent lower court cases several times before on the blog. Under Bruen, “when the Second Amendment’s plain text covers an individual’s conduct, the Constitution presumptively protects that conduct.” Id. at 17. To overcome this presumptive protection, “the government must affirmatively prove that its firearms regulation is part of the historical tradition that delimits the outer bounds of the right to keep and bear arms.” Id. at 19. If the government fails to come forward with evidence showing the challenged rule is consistent with “the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation,” the rule is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. Id. at 24.
The Court of Appeals recently applied that rule in the context of G.S. 14-269.2, North Carolina’s law prohibiting possession of weapons on educational property. In State v. Radomski, COA23-340; ___ N.C. App. ___ (May 21, 2024); temp. stay allowed, ___ N.C. ___ (June 7, 2024), a unanimous panel held that the law was unconstitutional as applied to the defendant on the facts of the case. This is the first successful Bruen challenge to a state criminal law. Today’s post examines the holding and implications of the decision, and offers suggestions to defenders on how to raise, litigate, and preserve such claims.
Third Circuit Deems Federal Felon-in-Possession Law Unconstitutional
Earlier this month, the Third Circuit, sitting en banc, found the federal felon-in-possession statute unconstitutional as applied. The decision was based on the new interpretive approach announced in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, 597 U.S. __, 142 S. Ct. 2111 (2022). The Third Circuit’s ruling is a massive decision that seems virtually certain to be reviewed by the Supreme Court. Keep reading for more details.
Spring 2023 Update on the Constitutionality of Gun Laws
Last fall, I wrote a post about the litigation over the constitutionality of various firearms restrictions in the wake of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, 597 U.S. __, 142 S. Ct. 2111 (2022). Recall that in Bruen, the Supreme Court announced a new interpretive approach for Second Amendment claims: courts must determine whether the challenged regulation is “consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.” Litigants have subsequently come forward with numerous challenges to gun laws, and courts have struggled with how to apply the new test. As detailed below, the Fifth Circuit recently issued a major federal appellate case decided under the Bruen framework, and we are awaiting another from the Third Circuit on an even more important issue.
Quick Post-Bruen Update on the Constitutionality of Gun Laws
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court decided New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, 597 U.S. __, 142 S. Ct. 2111 (2022), holding that New York could not constitutionally require residents to show a special need (beyond the general concerns about self-defense that any person might have) in order to obtain a permit to carry a handgun outside the home. I wrote a detailed summary of the case in this prior post. North Carolina doesn’t require any such showing, so the direct impact on our state was minimal.
However, Bruen’s holding arose from a new interpretive approach. The Court rejected the intermediate scrutiny test most lower tribunals had used when analyzing gun laws and replaced it with a historical analysis in which a limit on gun rights is constitutional only if it is “consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.” Lower courts have now begun to apply this framework to assess the constitutionality of various gun laws. The early returns suggest that Bruen’s impact may be substantial across a wide range of federal and state gun laws.