Overview
- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the firearm-possession conviction of Milder Escobar-Temal, a Guatemalan national living in Nashville.
- Writing for the majority, Judge Jane Branstetter Stranch concluded that “the people” can include unlawfully present individuals with sufficient connections to the national community.
- Applying the Supreme Court’s historical-tradition framework, the majority held the government could still disarm Escobar-Temal, analogizing to Revolutionary-era disarmament of groups like Quakers or loyalists.
- Judge Amul Thapar concurred in the outcome but argued in a separate, lengthy opinion that only U.S. citizens hold Second Amendment rights and that the First and Fourth Amendments were originally understood to be the same.
- Commentators said the dispute could reach the Supreme Court and affect noncitizens’ constitutional claims, and some characterized Thapar’s stance as aligned with the Trump administration’s immigration agenda.