United States v. Steven Duarte
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · No. 22-50048 · 137 F.4th 743
👎Unfavorable to gun rights
En banc court rejected the as-applied challenge to the felon-in-possession ban and affirmed the conviction.
GunMapUSA assessment of the outcome's direction, not a statement that the court decided rightly or wrongly.
What the court held
Steven Duarte, convicted under the federal felon-in-possession statute, argued that 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1) is unconstitutional as applied to non-violent felons like him. The en banc Ninth Circuit affirmed his conviction, aligning with the Fourth, Eighth, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits in holding that the statute is not unconstitutional as applied to non-violent felons, relying on the traditional legislative power over felons and the historical power to disarm specified categories of persons. Judge VanDyke dissented in part, arguing the majority gave legislatures effectively unlimited power to disarm classes of people without any showing of individual dangerousness.
Summarized from the court's opinion.
What this case is about
as-applied Second Amendment challenge to the federal felon-in-possession ban, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1)
GunMapUSA summary of the issue, not a quotation from the court.
Key Dates
- 2025-05-09 — Decided
- 2024-12-11 — Argued
Sources
- CourtListener — retrieved 2026-08-08
Summary of public court records. Not legal advice.