United States v. Devon Maurice Gray
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
United States v. Devon Maurice Gray
Opinion
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[DO NOT PUBLISH]
In the
United States Court of Appeals
For the Eleventh Circuit
____________________
No. 23-10247
Non-Argument Calendar
____________________
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
versus
DEVON MAURICE GRAY,
Defendant-Appellant.
____________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Florida
D.C. Docket No. 1:22-cr-20258-BB-1
____________________
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2 Opinion of the Court 23-10247
Before JILL PRYOR, NEWSOM, and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Devon Gray appeals his conviction for possession of a fire-
arm and ammunition as a felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C.
§§ 922(g)(1) and 924(a)(2). Gray argues that his conviction should
be vacated on the ground that § 922(g)(1) facially violates the Sec-
ond Amendment as interpreted in New York State Rifle & Pistol As-
sociation, Inc. v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022).
We review the constitutionality of a statute de novo. United
States v. Wright, 607 F.3d 708, 715 (11th Cir. 2010). A criminal de-
fendant’s guilty plea does not bar a subsequent constitutional chal-
lenge to the statute supporting the conviction. Class v. United States,
583 U.S. 174, 178 (2018).
The prior-panel-precedent rule requires us to follow a prior
panel’s holding unless it is overruled by this Court en banc or abro-
gated by the Supreme Court. United States v. White, 837 F.3d 1225,
1228 (11th Cir. 2016). “To constitute an overruling for the purposes
of this prior panel precedent rule, the Supreme Court decision
must be clearly on point.” United States v. Kaley, 579 F.3d 1246, 1255
(11th Cir. 2009) (quotation marks omitted). We have explained that
“the intervening Supreme Court case [must] actually abrogate or
directly conflict with, as opposed to merely weaken, the holding of
the prior panel.” Id.
In District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court explained
that the Second Amendment right to bear arms presumptively
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23-10247 Opinion of the Court 3
“belongs to all Americans” but is not unlimited. 554 U.S. 570, 581,
626 (2008). The Court noted that, while it “[did] not undertake an
exhaustive historical analysis . . . of the full scope of the Second
Amendment, nothing in [its] opinion should be taken to cast doubt
on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by fel-
ons.” Id. at 626.
After the Court’s decisions in Heller and McDonald v. City of
Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (2010), courts of appeals used a two-step
framework in assessing Second Amendment challenges: (1) Deter-
mine whether the challenged law regulates activity within the
scope of the right to bear arms based on its original historical
meaning; and (2) if so, apply means-end scrutiny to test the law’s
validity. See Bruen, 597 U.S. at 18–19.
In United States v. Rozier, 598 F.3d 768 (11th Cir. 2010), we
addressed the constitutionality of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), which pro-
hibits anyone who has been convicted of a crime punishable by
more than one year of imprisonment from possessing a firearm or
ammunition. We held that statutory restrictions such as § 922(g)(1)
“are a constitutional avenue to restrict the Second Amendment
right of certain classes of people,” including felons. 598 F.3d at 771.
Our reasoning did not employ means-end scrutiny; instead, we rec-
ognized that prohibiting felons from possessing firearms was a
“presumptively lawful longstanding prohibition.” Id. at 771 (quo-
tation marks omitted). We explained that Heller suggested that
“statutes disqualifying felons from possessing a firearm under any
and all circumstances do not offend the Second Amendment.” Id.
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4 Opinion of the Court 23-10247
And we concluded that Rozier’s arguments, such as desiring fire-
arms for the purpose of self-defense, were immaterial because fel-
ons as a class could be validly excluded from firearm possession un-
der the Second Amendment. Id.
Twelve years later in Bruen, the Supreme Court replaced Hel-
ler’s means-end scrutiny approach in the Second Amendment con-
text. 597 U.S. at 19. Now, courts must first ask whether the con-
tested firearm regulation covers conduct that falls within the plain
text of the Second Amendment. Id. at 17. If the regulation governs
such covered activity, it should be upheld only if the government
“affirmatively prove[s] that its firearms regulation is part of the his-
torical tradition that delimits the outer bounds of the right to keep
and bear arms.” Id. at 19. The Supreme Court in Bruen, as it did
previously in Heller, referenced the Second Amendment right as it
pertains to “law-abiding, responsible citizens.” Id. at 26, 38 n.9, 70;
Heller, 554 U.S. at 635.
In United States v. Dubois, we rejected a defendant’s Second
Amendment challenge to § 922(g)(1). 94 F.4th 1284, 1291–93 (11th
Cir. 2024). We held that Bruen did not abrogate our precedent in
Rozier because the Supreme Court made it clear that Heller did not
cast doubt on felon-in-possession prohibitions and that its holding
in Bruen was consistent with Heller. Id. at 1293. We noted that
Rozier interpreted Heller as limiting the Second Amendment right
to “law-abiding and qualified individuals” and as clearly excluding
felons from those categories by referring to felon-in-possession
bans as presumptively lawful. Id. (quotation marks omitted). We
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decided that, because clearer instruction was required from the Su-
preme Court before we could reconsider § 922(g)(1)’s constitution-
ality, we were still bound by Rozier under the prior-panel-precedent
rule. Id. Dubois’s challenge based on the Second Amendment
therefore failed. Id.
Here, Gray’s facial challenge to the constitutionality of
§ 922(g)(1) fails under de novo review, as it is foreclosed by our hold-
ings in both Rozier, which held that § 922(g)(1) does not violate the
Second Amendment, and also Dubois, which held that Bruen did not
abrogate Rozier. Rozier, 598 F.3d at 770–71; Dubois, 94 F.4th at 1293.
Recently, the Supreme Court decided United States v. Rahimi,
where it applied the Bruen methodology in evaluating the constitu-
tionality of § 922(g)(8). See 144 S. Ct. 1889, 1896, 1898, 1902 (2024).
The Supreme Court held that § 922(g)(8) did not facially violate the
Second Amendment because regulations prohibiting the misuse of
firearms by those who pose a credible threat of harm to others are
part of this country’s historical tradition. Id. at 1896.
Nothing in Rahimi conflicts with or abrogates our prior de-
cisions in Dubois and Rozier. To the contrary, the Supreme Court
in Rahimi affirmed that the right to bear arms “was never thought
to sweep indiscriminately.” Id. at 1899–1902. Instead, the Court
described a historical tradition of firearm regulation that included
prohibiting classes of individuals from owning firearms and reiter-
ated the presumptive legality of bans on firearm possession by fel-
ons. Id. Therefore, clearer instruction is required from the
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6 Opinion of the Court 23-10247
Supreme Court before we can reconsider the constitutionality of
§ 922(g)(1). See Dubois, 94 F.4th at 1293.
Since the precedential effect of our decisions in Dubois and
Rozier holding that § 922(g)(1) is constitutional remains intact, we
are bound to apply them under the prior-panel-precedent rule.
Thus, Gray’s challenge to the constitutionality of § 922(g)(1) is fore-
closed. Accordingly, we affirm.
AFFIRMED.
Reference
- Status
- Unpublished