USA v. Mitchell
Split Score
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Case Summary
Disposition
Reversed
Applying the Supreme Court’s Bruen text-and-history framework, the Fifth Circuit held that permanently disarming Kevin LaMarcus Mitchell under § 922(g)(1), based solely on his prior conviction as an unlawful marijuana user, violates the Second Amendment because the Government failed to identify a sufficiently analogous historical tradition. Accordingly, the court reversed the district court’s refusal to dismiss the indictment and vacated Mitchell’s conviction and sentence.
Circuit Split Identified
Legal Issue
Whether 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) may constitutionally impose a categorical, permanent firearm ban on all felons after N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n, Inc. v. Bruen, or whether the statute must be evaluated case-by-case through as-applied Second Amendment challenges.
Circuit Positions
§ 922(g)(1) is facially constitutional and may be applied categorically to all felons without individualized inquiry.
§ 922(g)(1) may be unconstitutional as applied to some non-violent felons; courts must conduct an individualized Bruen analysis.
Conflict Summary
The Fourth, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits continue to uphold § 922(g)(1) categorically for all felons, reasoning that historical status-based disarmament suffices. By contrast, the First, Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Circuits permit or require individualized, as-applied analysis and have found § 922(g)(1) unconstitutional in some circumstances.