A federal judge appointed by Donald Trump dismissed criminal charges for machine gun possession this week, citing the Second Amendment and Supreme Court precedent. The ruling highlights how the high court has expanded gun rights, as well as the broader impact Trump has had on the judiciary beyond the Supreme Court.
U.S. District Judge John Broomes’ ruling on Wednesday stemmed from the prosecution of Tamori Morgan, who was charged with two counts of possessing a machine gun under federal law. Morgan cited the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in Bruen to argue that the case should be dismissed on Second Amendment grounds. Justice Clarence Thomas’ opinion for the Republican-appointed majority in Bruen said that gun regulations can’t stand unless they’re “consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
The Kansas federal judge wrote that in Morgan’s case, the government failed to meet its burden “to demonstrate through historical analogs that regulation of the weapons at issue in this case are consistent with the nation’s history of firearms regulation.”
The vast implications of Broomes’ ruling might not be fully realized if the government gets it reversed on appeal. The judge noted that the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Kansas and neighboring states, had yet to apply Bruen to the law at issue in Morgan’s case.
There’s reason to think that even this Supreme Court could side with the government if the issue reaches the justices. Just this past term, in United States v. Rahimi, the court ruled 8-1 (over Thomas’ dissent) to uphold gun restrictions on people subject to restraining orders for domestic violence. The Rahimi case suggests that the court isn’t prepared to take the Bruen precedent as far as it could go.
But in the meantime, chaos looms for gun laws and public safety — whether it’s due to the Supreme Court’s expansive gun jurisprudence, the misinterpretation of that jurisprudence by lower court judges, or both.
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