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Posted on 03/18/2024 10:18:27 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
An illegal immigrant was wrongly banned from possessing guns, according to a recent ruling.
A federal law, Section 922 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code, bars illegal immigrants from carrying guns or ammunition. Prosecutors charged Heriberto Carbajal-Flores, the illegal alien, in 2020 after he was found in Chicago carrying a semi-automatic pistol despite “knowing he was an alien illegally and unlawfully in the United States.”
U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman rejected two motions to dismiss, but the third motion, based on a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, triggered the dismissal of the case on March 8.
“The noncitizen possession statute, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(5), violates the Second Amendment as applied to Carbajal-Flores,” Judge Coleman, appointed under President Barack Obama, wrote in her 8-page ruling.
“Thus, the court grants Carbajal-Flores’ motion to dismiss.”
Lawyers for Mr. Carbajal-Flores had argued in the most recent motion to dismiss that the government could not show that the law in question was “part of the historical tradition that delimits the outer bounds of the right to keep and bear arms.”
In 2022, the Supreme Court determined that the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment “presumptively protects” conduct that is covered by the amendment’s “plain text.”
To justify regulations, governments must show that each regulation “is consistent with this nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation,” the high court said at the time. “Only if a firearm regulation is consistent with this nation’s historical tradition may a court conclude that the individual’s conduct falls outside the Second Amendment’s ‘unqualified command,’” it said.
“Lifetime disarmament of an individual based on alienage or nationality alone does not have roots in the history and tradition of the United States,” Mr. Carbajal-Flores’s lawyers argued.
They pointed to several rulings interpreting the Supreme Court’s decision, including an appeals court ruling that declared stripping a man convicted of a nonviolent crime of his gun rights was unconstitutional.
The government opposed the motion, noting that neither of the cited decisions applied to illegal immigrants and that the defendant ignored other rulings that did, including a 2023 ruling that found that Second Amendment rights aren’t afforded to illegal immigrants. The government also offered examples of laws that prohibited certain categories of people from carrying guns, including “individuals who threatened the social order through their untrustworthy adherence to the rule of law.”
But Judge Coleman ruled for the defendant, finding that the laws against untrustworthy people contained exceptions for people who signed loyalty oaths and were deemed nonviolent.
“The government argues that Carbajal-Flores is a noncitizen who is unlawfully present in this country. The court notes, however, that Carbajal-Flores has never been convicted of a felony, a violent crime, or a crime involving the use of a weapon. Even in the present case, Carbajal-Flores contends that he received and used the handgun solely for self-protection and protection of property during a time of documented civil unrest in the Spring of 2020,” she wrote.
“Additionally, Pretrial Service has confirmed that Carbajal-Flores has consistently adhered to and fulfilled all the stipulated conditions of his release, is gainfully employed, and has no new arrests or outstanding warrants. The court finds that Carbajal-Flores’ criminal record, containing no improper use of a weapon, as well as the non-violent circumstances of his arrest do not support a finding that he poses a risk to public safety such that he cannot be trusted to use a weapon responsibly and should be deprived of his Second Amendment right to bear arms in self-defense.”
An attorney representing Mr. Carbajal-Flores declined to comment. Federal prosecutors didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The ruling drew a range of reactions from people in the legal community.
“Supreme Court has said the ‘people’ are members of the political community,” Larry Keane, a lawyer for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, wrote on X.
“Illegal aliens in US are not part of the political community and thus do not have 2A rights.”
Kostas Moros, a lawyer who represents the California Rifle and Pistol Association, said that he also saw the issue that way.
“Bruen asks for a historical tradition of modern regulation that justifies the modern law, and one plainly exists here,” he wrote, noting that groups that have been disarmed in the past, including loyalists, have the common thread of being “outside of the political community.”
Matthew Larosiere, another lawyer, disagreed, writing in an analysis that all immigrants, even ones in the country illegally, are part of “the people” in the Second Amendment. His argument rested in part on the 14th Amendment, which applies to “any person within” the country.
“To find that illegal immigrants are outside of ’the people‘ protected by the Second Amendment, you must believe that the Framers were talking about a different ’people' in the First, Fourth, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments,” he wrote, adding later that he sided with the court in finding differences between historical laws such as the one that barred loyalists from owning guns and the law that applies to illegal immigrants.
This Ping List is for all news pertaining to infringes upon or victories for the 2nd Amendment.
FReepmail me if you want to be added to or deleted from this Ping List.
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And keep your powder dry.
A.B.C. - Always Be Carrying. (Especially if you are illegal.) /sarc
You 'citizens'? Why do you need to - as our LEOs will protect you.
>From the ruling:<
It has me wondering if he was arrested solely for violating this statute or something else.
Are average citizens allowed to open carry and/or concealed carry in Chitcago? It could make this case bigger or smaller.
EC
Do these illegal get lots of range time?
We now have notice that the enemy is armed.We should train accordingly.
They haven’t been able to cripple LEGAL gun owners completely, so the next logical step is to water down the process for ILLEGALS to own guns?
We are on our own. 100%. :(
Yeah, and we citizens with our God given rights still conform with background checks.
>> Why are so MANY black, female ‘judges’ so #O*$^@I^(%&# LIBERAL?!?!?
An exception that proves the rule is Janice Rogers Brown.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janice_Rogers_Brown
>> We are on our own. 100%. :(
Hoard ammo and consume liberal amounts of it in practice.
(The hoarded ammo will also come in handy when the currency collapses.)
Understood. You and I are on the same page when it comes to what constitutes an invasion of our borders. I am not now nor will I ever advocate for illegal aliens and hope that President Trump goes through on his promise to mass deport.
That being said, one of the founding principles enshrined in the Declaration is that all men are created equal and God has endowed them with certain rights.
We can affirm their rights as a person (as the court should, if it is being true to the original intent of our founders) while simultaneously wanting to remove from them the privilege of being in our country.
Legally, these are two different issues.
(The hoarded ammo will also come in handy when the currency collapses.)
= = =
I’m not sure I want to trade ammo for supplies. Then the customer is armed.
Just trying to render the 2nd amendment absurd so that they can coerce otherwise disinclined people to back its abolition. That is all this is.
I might stiplate the serial number be ground off the firearm.
Then the illegal would match well with it.
Seems that illegal invaders have more rights than US citizens now.
The replacements have no restrictions the replaced will be charged if they challenge them.
“We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” Barack Obama in Columbia, Missouri, on Oct. 30, 2008… (spit)
Good for illegals. For citizens and green card holders, don't carry, heck don't own a firearm, in Chicago unless you have an FOID. You will be arrested. Hope you get this judge.
No. You can't even own a firearm in Illinois without an FOID. And non Illinois residents can't get a FOID. Carry in Chicago is ok with a concealed carry permit. To my knowledge open carry, no.
Also, concealed carry permit holders are not allowed to carry in Illinois either. Illinois recognizes no other states permits. You can drive through with a firearm in your car though. Just don’t stop for anything but gas.
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