BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation is applauding an amicus brief submitted by the American Civil Liberties Union in a Second Amendment case which contends a man named Steven Duarte “did not forfeit his Second Amendment rights because of a past, nonviolent felony conviction.” The case is known as U.S. v. Duarte.
“This is a remarkable and refreshing approach by the ACLU,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “The organization has produced a stunningly detailed amicus brief supporting the Second Amendment. While acknowledging its history of concerns regarding gun-related violent crime, in this case the ACLU properly criticizes federal law for permanently disarming people previously convicted of nonviolent offenses, including misdemeanors where a state legislature has imposed a sufficiently long possible prison sentence to result in a lifetime loss of Second Amendment rights. Thus, as the ACLU sagely observes, someone could be put in prison for ‘the most fleeting, innocuous, or merely constructive ‘possession’ of a firearm’.”
The ACLU’s 40-page brief, Gottlieb noted, is very critical about how the law has been used to punish people who had been previously convicted for the most innocuous offenses. The brief notes, for example, “The government cannot show that applying such sweeping criminal liability to people like Mr. Duarte is consistent with the principles underpinning our tradition of regulating firearms.”
Duarte had previously been convicted of nonviolent offenses such as vandalism and drug possession. As detailed in the brief, the government “never contended that he poses a danger or threat of violence to others.” Yet the statute, 922(g)(1), was used to severely punish Duarte, sentencing him to four years in prison.
“We are delighted the ACLU recognizes the government has wielded a very heavy hand in its enforcement of federal statute 922(g)(1),” Gottlieb stated, “not only against Mr. Duarte, but also against other people. The ACLU makes a compelling argument that the government has failed to justify permanently stripping people of their Second Amendment rights, when they do not pose a risk to society, simply because of a previous conviction that might be punishable by more than a year in prison.
“Bravo to the ACLU for submitting this brief in Mr. Duarte’s case,” he concluded.