Ninth Circuit Holds Felon-in-Possession Unconstitutional as to Non-Violent Offenders After Bruen
May 9th 2024, in United States v. Duarte, No. 22-50048 (9th Cir. May 9, 2024), a split panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit 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. The opinion, written by Judge Bea and joined by Judge VanDyke, begins:
18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) makes it a crime for any person to possess a firearm if he has been convicted of an offense “punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.” Steven Duarte, who has five prior non-violent state criminal convictions—all punishable for more than a year— was charged and convicted under § 922(g)(1) after police saw him toss a handgun out of the window of a moving car. Duarte now challenges the constitutionality of his conviction. He argues that, under the Supreme Court’s recent decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022), § 922(g)(1) violates the Second Amendment as applied to him, a non-violent offender who has served his time in prison and reentered society. We agree.
https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2024/05/09/22-50048.pdf
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A federal judge in Washington, D.C., sentenced an antiabortion activist to five years in prison for illegally blockading a reproductive health clinic. Lauren Handy is the first person sentenced for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.
“Americans have been protesting in favor of and against abortion access for the better part of a century, and there may be nothing more American than these protests” over conflicting views of fundamental rights, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said in handing down the penalty.
“But the law does not protect violence or obstructive conduct — nor should it,” Kollar-Kotelly continued. “That’s what you’re being punished for, not your views on abortion nor your very-American commitment to peaceful protest.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/05/14/lauren-handy-abortion-clinic-blockade-sentence/
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Southern District of New York: Authorities have charged two brothers with allegedly stealing $25M worth of cryptocurrency in 12 seconds. The duo, graduates of the prestigious MIT, allegedly engineered a first-of-its-kind wire fraud scheme to gain access to pending crypto transactions.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-brothers-arrested-attacking-ethereum-blockchain-and-stealing-25m-cryptocurrency
Anton Vialtsin, Esq.
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