A federal appeals court upheld on Monday a firearm possession ban for defendants out on bail.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Bail Reform Act of 1984’s pretrial restrictions on firearms possession did not violate the U.S. Constitution, finding it “consistent with our nation’s long history of temporarily disarming criminal defendants facing serious charges.” Two defendants, John Thomas Fencl and Jesus Perez-Garcia, challenged the provision based on the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.
“Here, the historical evidence, when considered as a whole, shows a long and broad history of legislatures exercising authority to disarm people whose possession of firearms would pose an unusual danger, beyond the ordinary citizen, to themselves or others” Judge Gabriel Sanchez, a Biden appointee, wrote in the opinion for the court. “The temporary disarmament of Fencl and Perez-Garcia as a means reasonably necessary to protect public safety falls within that historical tradition.”
The three-judge panel also included Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw, a Clinton appointee, and Judge Richard Clifton, a George W. Bush appointee.
The panel noted that “pretrial release was far rarer in the founding era than it is today because the founding generation generally did not allow defendants facing capital charges to be released pending trial, and most serious criminal acts and felonies constituted capital offenses.”
“That Appellants are eligible for pretrial release today, however, does not undermine the historical evidence that similarly situated criminal defendants in the founding era would not have been released and would have instead been disarmed,” the court found.
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