Professor Jacob Charles Cited in United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in United States v. Daniels

Professor Jacob D. Charles is cited in the concurring opinion in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit case, United States of America v. Patrick Darnell Daniels, Jr. The case involves Title 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3), which bars an individual from possessing a firearm if he is an “unlawful user” of a controlled substance.

Excerpt from United States v. Daniels, Stephen A. Higginson, concurring: 

It is also important to acknowledge that other gun safety laws, especially longstanding status based prohibitions previously understood to be constitutionally unassailable, have been recently struck down by courts across the country as they attempt to faithfully implement Bruen.7

7 In fact, there is already a circuit split on the constitutionality of § 922(g)(1), the federal felon-in-possession statute. Compare Range, 69 F.4th at 98 (holding § 922(g)(1) unconstitutional as applied), with United States v. Jackson, 69 F.4th 495, 501-02 (8th Cir. 2023) (upholding the constitutionality of § 922(g)(1) as applied and concluding that “there is no need for felony-by-felony litigation regarding the constitutionality” of that provision). Some courts, faced with Bruen challenges to multiple provisions of the federal criminal code, have upheld one provision while striking down another. E.g., United States v. Price, No. 22-cr-97, 635 F. Supp. 3d 455, 464, 467 (S.D.W. Va. Oct. 12, 2022) (finding 18 U.S.C. § 922(k), which makes it unlawful to possess a firearm with an obliterated serial number, unconstitutional while holding that § 922(g)(1) “accords with the Second Amendment”). Moreover, the effect of Bruen has been especially dramatic as to civil claims. See Jake Charles, One Year of Bruen’s Reign: An Updated Empirical Analysis, Duke Ctr. for Firearms Law (July 7, 2023), https://firearmslaw.duke.edu/2023/07/one-year-ofbruens-reign-an-updated-empirical-analysis.

The complete opinion may be found at United States of America v. Patrick Darnell Daniels, Jr. 

Professor Charles's analysis, One Year of Bruen’s Reign: An Updated Empirical Analysis, may be found at Duke Center for Firearms Law