9th Circuit reverses felony firearm conviction

In a decision that could have major implications for the Second Amendment and criminal law, a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel reversed the conviction of a California man with five nonviolent felony convictions for violating a federal statute barring him from possessing a handgun after Inglewood police arrested him for tossing it out of a moving car.

9th Circuit Judge Carlos T. Bea, an appointee of President George W. Bush, ruled that two Supreme Court decisions - including the June 2022 ruling in New York Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen - meant that Steven Duarte's conviction violates the Second Amendment as applied to him.

"Based on this record, we cannot say that Duarte's predicate offenses were, by Founding era standards, of a nature serious enough to justify permanently depriving him of his fundamental Second Amendment rights," Bea wrote. "The Second Amendment's plain text and historically understood meaning therefore presumptively guarantee his individual right to possess a firearm for self-defense."

His opinion was joined by 9th Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke, an appointee of President Donald Trump and overturned a 2010 9th Circuit precedent. 9th Circuit Judge Milan D. Smith, another Bush appointee, dissented and asked the 9th Circuit to rehear the case en banc. He argued that Bruen did not overrule the 9th Circuit's 2010 decision and that the three-judge panel needed to follow it in the meantime.

"One day -- likely sooner, rather than later -- the Supreme Court will address the constitutionality of § 922(g)(1) or otherwise provide clearer guidance on whether felons are protected by the Second Amendment," Smith wrote. "But it is not our role as circuit judges to anticipate how the Supreme Court will decide future cases."

John D. Hanusz, a Los Angeles criminal defense attorney, described the decision as an "earthquake" that could wipe out hundreds of firearms-related convictions in the 9th Circuit.