(PatriotWise.com) — A federal judge dismissed one of three charges against an illegal immigrant, ruling that the federal law barring illegals from carrying firearms was unconstitutional, The Epoch Times reported.
Prosecutors in Illinois charged Heriberto Carbajal-Flores in 2020 after he was apprehended in Chicago carrying a semi-automatic handgun.
In her March 8 decision, US District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman rejected two of the defense’s motions to dismiss but ruled in favor of the third motion to dismiss the gun charge, citing the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling that the government must prove that a gun law is “consistent” with the nation’s historical traditions of the Second Amendment.
Judge Coleman ruled that the statute preventing noncitizens from possessing firearms violated the Second Amendment in this case, and therefore the motion to dismiss the charge was granted.
The defense argued that the government could not prove that the statute was part of the country’s historical tradition. In their motion, the defense asserted that “lifetime disarmament” based on nationality or alienage did not have “roots in the historical tradition of the United States.”
The defense cited several lower court rulings interpreting the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision, including a recent appellate court decision that determined it was unconstitutional to deny the right to bear arms to an individual convicted of a nonviolent crime.
Federal prosecutors argued against the defense’s motion, noting that neither of the lower court rulings cited involved illegal immigrants and claiming that the defense had ignored other rulings, including a 2023 federal appeals court decision that found that the Second Amendment right to bear arms did not extend to illegal immigrants.
Prosecutors also argued that there were statutes preventing certain groups of people from possessing a firearm, including those “who threatened the social order through their untrustworthy adherence to the rule of law.”
However, Judge Coleman said that particular law included exceptions for those who were deemed nonviolent or signed loyalty oaths. She noted that Carbajal-Flores had never been convicted of a violent crime or a crime involving a weapon.
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