9th Circuit Upholds Gun Ban for Nonviolent Felons - Articles

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9th Circuit Upholds Gun Ban for Nonviolent Felons

Posted by: Azya Thornton on May 12, 2025

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday upheld a federal law banning nonviolent felons from owning firearms, ruling the ban does not violate the Second Amendment right to bear arms. In an en banc decision, the court said its ruling aligns with four other federal circuit courts that have reached similar conclusions, Bloomberg News reports. It is the latest federal appeals court decision to apply the U.S. Supreme Court’s constitutional test, which requires courts to examine whether a gun restriction has a historical analogue dating back to the nation’s founding. The ruling upholds the criminal conviction of Steven Duarte, who was caught with a pistol in Los Angeles while knowing he had previously been convicted of five nonviolent felonies. A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit had found the law unconstitutional in 2024, but the court voted to rehear the case after the Supreme Court clarified the test in the U.S. v. Rahimi.