A semi-automatic Glock pistol is fired at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives , National Services Center, March 2, 2023, in Martinsburg, W.Va. The city of Chicago sued Glock Inc. on Tuesday, March 19, 2024, alleging the handgun …The federal government is appealing a judge’s ruling that found the Constitution now allows some illegal immigrants to possess guns, plowing new ground in the quickly evolving debate over Second Amendment rights.
The Illinois and Texas cases are now with appeals courts, testing new frontiers in both gun and immigration law. But things got complicated two years ago when the justices issued their decision in a case known as Bruen, where they struck down a state law that severely limited who could obtain a concealed-carry permit. In his majority opinion Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that for firearms restrictions to survive Second Amendment scrutiny, they must have been the type of law countenanced at the time Congress wrote and the country ratified the amendment.
Judge Coleman’s ruling only applies to Mr. Carbajal-Flores and doesn’t purport to strike down the law, though that could be the result as his case, and the one in Texas involving another illegal immigrant, Antonio Sing-Ledezma, wind through the appeals process. Hunter Biden, son of President Biden, has argued that the prohibition on drug users purchasing guns is unconstitutional, which would negate some charges against him.