SecondAmendment DueProcess JusticiabilityDoctri
Does a state law prohibiting firearm possession by felons violate the Second Amendment when applied to an individual with no violent felony convictions?
This Court’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n, Inc. v. Bruen , 597 U.S. 1 (2022), brought about a sea change in Second Amendment jurisprudence. In Bruen’s wake, federal district courts and the courts of appeals have considered myriad constitutional challenges to the federal felon in possession statute, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), which has produced wildly divergent results. State courts, however, are likewise bound with equal force to apply this Court’s precedents in the context of state laws that similarly regulate the right to bear arms. The question presented is: Does Fla. Stat. § 790.23(1) and (1)(a), which makes it “unlawful for any person to own or to have in his or her care, custody, possession, or control any firearm, ammunition, or electric weapon or device, or to carry a concealed weapon, including a tear gas gun or chemical weapon or device, if that person has been” convicted of a felony in a Florida state court, violate the Second Amendment either facially or as applied to an individual who has never been convicted of a violent felony?