GUNSSupreme Court Ruling Threatens Gun Charges Filed in Trump’s Alleged Assassination Attempt
A Trace review of federal court cases found that several defendants have had similar charges tossed out since the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision dramatically expanded Second Amendment protections.
The felony charges filed against the suspected gunman in the apparent assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump have been repeatedly challenged — and sometimes dismissed — as unconstitutional in the two years since the Supreme Court decided New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, a landmark case that dramatically expanded Second Amendment protections.
On September 16, federal agents charged Ryan Routh, 58, with one count of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and one count of possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Secret Service agents spotted Routh aiming an AK-47-style rifle through a chain-link fence bordering Trump’s West Palm Beach club while the former president golfed, officials have said. The agents opened fire, and Routh fled the scene. He was apprehended about an hour later while driving into a neighboring county.
Routh has two previous felony convictions, which bars him from owning firearms under a federal law known as the felon gun ban. According to court records, Routh’s rifle, which federal agents recovered at the scene, also had its serial number scratched off — another crime.
Historically, charges like these have been cut-and-dry, and prosecutors have used them to keep potentially violent suspects behind bars. But over the past two years, the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision has cast doubt on whether the laws are constitutional, raising the prospect that Routh could get the charges against him thrown out.
Since June 2022, more than a thousand people with past felony convictions have used Bruen to challenge the constitutionality of the federal law that bars them from possessing guns, according to an extensive analysis of federal court decisions by The Trace. In at least 30 cases, defendants convinced courts to dismiss criminal charges for violating the felon gun ban.
Routh and his public defender have yet to signal a strategy for his defense, but Eric Ruben, a professor at Southern Mississippi University Dedman School of Law, said he expects the alleged gunman to challenge his charges on constitutional grounds. “That’s in part because there are Second Amendment challenges to all weapons-related charges these days,” Ruben said. “The two charges here, we’ve already seen a lot of litigation, some of it successful litigation in other contexts.”
