Supreme Court Second Amendment Update 6-18-2025

I usually post these a day or two before the SCOTUS “discuss conference,” where the justices don’t actually discuss the cert petitions and only vote on the petitions a justice has requested a vote on. The rest of the cert petitions are placed on the SCOTUS “dead list” and are automatically denied.

This week’s conference came a day early. On April 17th, SCOTUS transitioned from holding its discuss conferences on Fridays to Thursdays. This happens every year. Why? I don’t know.

In any event, we now know which Second Amendment cert petitions have been scheduled for the last two discuss conferences before the Justices go on their summer vacation.

There are six Second Amendment cert petitions scheduled for today’s discuss conference. There are sixteen scheduled for the discuss conference on June 26th.

There are currently six Second Amendment cert petitions scheduled for the “long conference” of September 29th.

A betting man would bet that SCOTUS will not be granting any of these petitions other than to GVR (Grant, Vacate, Remand) in those cases where the FEDs asked the justices to GVR the case.

Here are the petitions scheduled for today’s voting conference. Clicking on the docket numbers will take you to the SCOTUS docket, where you can take a deeper dive into them, if you so desire. I invite you to read the briefs in opposition to the granting of the cert petitions. The briefs submitted by the Federal government reveal where this administration truly stands. When a waiver to respond is filed to a petition is filed (or no response is filed) coupled with no justice requestiung a response, means the petition will be denied.

Ronnie Diaz, Jr., Petitioner v. United States No. 24-6625
QUESTION PRESENTED
Whether 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), the federal statute that prohibits anyone who has been convicted of “a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year” from possessing a firearm, violates the Second Amendment either facially or as applied to individuals with convictions for non-violent offenses.

Johnell Lavell Barber, II, Petitioner v. United States  No. 24-6789
QUESTION PRESENTED FOR REVIEW
1. Whether 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment in light of New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n, Inc. v. Bruen, 142 S. Ct. 2111 (2022).
2. Whether, as a statutory matter, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) prohibits a person’s present intrastate possession of a firearm or ammunition for the sole reason that the firearm or ammunition previously crossed state lines.
3. Whether Congress may criminalize intrastate possession of a firearm or ammunition solely because they crossed state lines at some point before they came into the defendant’s possession.
 
Freddy Castro, Petitioner v. United States  No. 24-6813
QUESTIONS PRESENTED
I. Whether 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) permits conviction for the possession of any firearm that has ever crossed state lines at any time in the indefinite past, and, if so, if it is facially unconstitutional?
II. Whether 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) comports with the Second Amendment?

Ward Lawrence Kenyon, Petitioner v. Florida No. 24-7249 (Waiver)
QUESTIONS PRESENTED
1. Whether a recidivism statute is unconstitutional under the Due Process and Jury Clauses if it authorizes a sentencing enhancement based on nonjury findings of facts not alleged in the charging document upon proof by a preponderance of the evidence?
2. Whether a statute imposing on all convicted felons a lifetime ban on possession of a firearm or ammunition violates the Second Amendment?

William Danta Toney, Petitioner v. United States  No. 24-7253 (Waiver)
QUESTION PRESENTED
Is the lifetime ban on possession of firearms by all felons, codified at 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), plainly unconstitutional on its face under New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022), because it is permanent and applies to all persons convicted of felonies?

Dawon Hennings, Petitioner v. United States No. 24-7260 (Waiver)
QUESTION PRESENTED
Does 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1)’s lifetime ban on firearm possession for all individuals previously convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year violate the Second Amendment on its face?