5th Circuit Upholds Felon-in-Possession Conviction Under Commerce Clause and Second Amendment Review

The ruling illustrates ongoing federal appellate tension over how courts apply Bruen's history-and-tradition test to statutory gun prohibitions affecting people with prior convictions.

A federal appeals court upheld the conviction of Curtis Squire, a New Orleans resident, for possessing a handgun as a previously convicted felon, affirming the application of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) in a June 2026 opinion by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Squire's firearm was discovered by law enforcement during the execution of a search warrant connected to a separate shooting investigation; he was not charged in connection with that shooting, according to court records reviewed by The Congressional Times.

Squire had prior convictions for heroin trafficking and burglary, which triggered the federal felon-in-possession statute under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). The Fifth Circuit panel rejected his Second Amendment challenge by applying the historical-tradition framework established in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022), finding that historical precedent supports disarming individuals with records involving dangerous conduct, including drug trafficking, according to the court's published opinion.

The Commerce Clause basis for the statute — which classifies possession of a firearm as 'interstate commerce' even when the weapon remains stationary inside a private residence — was not disturbed by the panel. Federal prosecutors routinely establish the interstate nexus by demonstrating that the firearm was manufactured in a state other than the state of possession, a standard method documented across thousands of § 922(g) prosecutions in federal court records maintained by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Fifth Circuit's ruling adds to a growing body of post-Bruen appellate decisions addressing which categories of individuals may be disarmed consistent with the Second Amendment. The Seventh, Third, and Eighth Circuits have issued differing analyses on related questions involving drug users and nonviolent felons, creating a patchwork of standards that legal scholars have noted in published law review commentary. Whether the Supreme Court will grant certiorari to resolve these circuit variations remains unknown; the Court's docket for the October 2026 term, which would reveal any such grant, is not yet fully published by the Office of the Clerk of the Supreme Court.

What remains unknown is whether Squire's legal team will seek en banc review from the full Fifth Circuit or petition the Supreme Court for certiorari. Those filings, if submitted, would appear in the federal PACER court records system and would become the next public document to watch in this case.