By Tanya Metaksa
What’s New—SCOTUS: the U.S. Supreme Court is on summer recess. USA v. Steven Duarte, AKA Shorty: Case No. 22-50048: The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Voted to consider this case en banc; Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association, Inc. v. Delaware Department of Safety and Homeland Security: Case Number: 23-1633, 23-1634, 23-1641: A three-judge panel upheld the denial of preliminary injunction; Kristin Worth v. Bob Jacobson: Case #23-2248. US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld the District Court’s decision that the Minnesota ban on 18 to 20-year-old’ right to carry was unconstitutional;
Circuit Court
California: Ninth Circuit
USA v. Steven Duarte, AKA Shorty: Case No. 22-50048: On July 17, 2024, Chief Judge Murgia ordered: “Upon the vote of a majority of nonrecused active judges, it is ordered that this case be reheard en banc pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 35(a) and Circuit Rule 35-3. The three-judge panel opinion is vacated.”
Background: On March 20, 2020, an automobile in which Duarte was a passenger was being pulled over by police officers when the passenger in the car threw a handgun out of the window before the car stopped. The officers retrieved the gun and found that it matched a magazine that was found in the vehicle. Duarte was charged under 597 U.S. 1 (2022), § 922(g)(1). Duarte appealed and challenged his conviction as a result of the Bruendecision.
The question of the constitutionality of 597 U.S. 1 (2022), § 922(g)(1) was narrowly addressed bythe current SCOTUS in the case of Rahimi. Another case, Garland v. Range, deals with 597 U.S. 1 (2022), § 922(g) may be applicable. In an en banc opinion, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled for the plaintiff, Range. In Dean Weingarten’s analysis of the Range opinion, his summary sentence may be prescient: “The Opinion strikes directly at the power of the government to define felonies at will and thus deprive large segments of the population of the rights protected by the Second Amendment, at will.”
In May 2024, the three-judge panel’s 2-1 decision ordered Steven Duarte’s conviction vacated.
“The panel held that under New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022), § 922(g)(1) violates the Second Amendment as applied to Duarte, a non-violent offender who has served his time in prison and reentered society; and that Vongxay, which did not apply the mode of analysis that Bruen later established and now requires courts to perform, is clearly irreconcilable with Bruen,” the ruling said.
Delaware: Third Circuit
Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association, Inc. v. Delaware Department of Safety and Homeland Security: Case Number: 23-1633, 23-1634, 23-1641: The decision by the three-judge panel was issued on July 16, 2024. The denial of a preliminary injunction by the District Court was upheld. Judge Stephano Bibas authored the decision in which he wrote: “We do not hold that Second Amendment harms, or constitutional harms generally, cannot be irreparable. Still, the scant evidence before us here hardly shows that the challengers’ harm is.”
Background: Two cases challenging the 2022 Delaware gun laws, Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association v. Delaware Dept. of Safety and Gray v. Jennings, were consolidated in December 2022, and on March 27, Judge Richard G. Andrews denied the plaintiff’s motions for a preliminary injunction. The case is now on appeal before the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. A coalition of 20 Republican attorneys general filed an amicus brief on July 10, 2023. In this brief, the attorneys general wrote,“Because HB 450 and SS 1 both regulate conduct covered by the ‘plain text’ of the Second Amendment—’ keep[ing] and bear[ing] Arms,’ see U.S. Const. amend. II—they are presumptively unconstitutional.”
A hearing was held on March 11, 2024, before Judges Bibas, Montgomery-Reeves, and Roth.
Minnesota: Eighth Circuit
Kristin Worth v. Bob Jacobson: Case #23-2248. This case was initially filed on June 7, 2021, two years before the SCOTUS decision in Bruen. The District Court, on March 31, 2023, granted the plaintiffs’ motion, holding that the Minnesota Right-to-Carry Ban for those between 18 and 21 was facially unconstitutional. That decision was then appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit by the state of Minnesota. Oral arguments were held on Feb. 24, and a decision upholding the decision of the Circuit Court was announced on July 16.
