UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. SIDNEY DONNELL KIMBLE
No. 23-50874
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
June 30, 2025
Jerry E. Smith, Circuit Judge
Before SMITH, GRAVES, and DUNCAN, Circuit Judges.
JERRY E. SMITH, Circuit Judge:
Sidney Kimble has been convicted of two drug-trafficking felonies. After serving his time for each offense, he was found in possession of a handgun and charged and convicted under
I.
Kimble pleaded nolo contendere to manufacturing or delivering a controlled substance after officers found him carrying crack cocaine, marihuana, yellow pills of an unidentified substance, and over $1,000 in cash. He was sentenced to six years’ confinement for that state-level felony but served just one year. His parole term expired on January 5, 2018.
In 2015, Kimble sold a confidential informant approximately 139 grams of crack cocaine. He pleaded guilty to a federal felony: possession with intent to distribute a detectable quantity of cocaine. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by four years of supervised release. He was released early in July 2016, at which point his four years of supervised release commenced. But after violating his terms of release by cheating on a drug test, he was re-imprisoned for 12 months beginning on January 1, 2018. The order remanding Kimble to prison stated that upon his release, “no supervised release [would] follow.” He was again released early on July 6, 2018.
Kimble‘s present appeal stems from his arrest on July 16, 2021, when law enforcement agents attempted to stop him for outstanding warrants for possession of a controlled substance and being a felon in possession of a firearm. As Kimble fled, officers observed him discard a handgun from his waistband. The officers caught up, arrested Kimble, and recovered the
After several continuances, Kimble moved to dismiss the indictment in March 2023 on the ground that
As with all constitutional questions, we consider Kimble‘s as-applied challenge to (g)(1) de novo. United States v. Daniels, 124 F.4th 967, 971 (5th Cir. 2025), petition for cert. filed (June 5, 2025) (No. 24-1248).
II.
Title
A.
The Second Amendment guarantees that “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms[] shall not be infringed.”
The Supreme Court “revisited and refined” Heller over a decade later, instructing courts to employ a two-step framework to analyze whether a particular firearm regulation violates an individual‘s right to keep and bear arms. Diaz, 116 F.4th at 463; see Bruen, 597 U.S. at 17. First, a court asks whether the Second Amendment‘s plain text covers the behavior the government seeks to regulate, in which event the Constitution presumptively
As to the first inquiry, “[t]he plain text of the Second Amendment covers the conduct prohibited by
Our post-Bruen framework for assessing whether a
Our caselaw recognizes three categories of offenses that doom a defendant‘s as-applied challenge to (g)(1): theft, violence, and violating the terms of one‘s release by possessing arms while on parole. First, in Diaz, we held that the defendant‘s as-applied challenge failed because Founding-era analogues to Diaz‘s predicate felony such as horse theft were subject to the death penalty, conveying that “our country has a historical tradition of severely punishing people like Diaz who have been convicted of theft.” Id. at 468-69. Therefore, the lesser punishment of lifelong disarmament imposed by (g)(1) accorded with the Second Amendment. Id. at 469-70.
Second, in Schnur, 132 F.4th at 868, we considered an as-applied challenge to a (g)(1) conviction brought by a defendant whose predicate felonies included “aggravated battery causing great bodily injury.” We upheld the conviction because “our caselaw suggests that there are historical analogues demonstrating our Nation‘s longstanding tradition of disarming persons with a violent criminal history analogous to Schnur‘s.” Id. at 869 (citing, inter alia, United States v. Bullock, 123 F.4th 183, 185 (5th Cir. 2024) (per curiam)). We thus held that “Schnur‘s felony conviction
Finally, in United States v. Giglio, 126 F.4th 1039, we upheld a (g)(1) conviction where the defendant was found armed while still serving his sentence on supervised release—again because, historically, “convicts could be required to forfeit their weapons and were prevented from reacquiring arms until they had finished serving their sentences.” Id. at 1044 (citation omitted); see also United States v. Contreras, 125 F.4th 725, 732-33 (5th Cir. 2025).
In summary, our caselaw establishes that if a defendant‘s predicate felony involves theft or violence, his as-applied challenge to
The novel question raised by Kimble‘s appeal is whether a predicate drug-trafficking felony also justifies permanent disarmament under (g)(1) even after the defendant has served his full sentence. We must hold the government to its heavy burden of showing that our history supports Kimble‘s lifetime disarmament under (g)(1), because the Second Amendment “is not ‘a second-class right.‘” Bruen, 597 U.S. at 70 (quoting McDonald v. City of Chicago, 561 U.S. 742, 780 (2010)).
B.
The government advances two theories to support its contention that
1.
In Diaz, 116 F.4th at 469-70, we held that if a felon‘s predicate offense “would have led to capital punishment or estate forfeiture” at the Founding, then
To succeed, the government must show that the historical laws it offers as analogues are “relevantly similar” to
The closer question is whether the proffered laws pass the “why” test—that is, whether they “address a comparable problem” as does (g)(1). Daniels, 124 F.4th at 973. Answering that question—i.e., “deciding whether a conceptual fit exists between the old law and the new“—“requires the exercise of both analogical reasoning and sound judgment.” Id. (quoting United States v. Connelly, 117 F.4th 269, 274 (5th Cir. 2024)).
We begin by considering the purpose of the laws underlying Kimble‘s predicate offenses. See Diaz, 116 F.4th at 467. Kimble‘s 2012 felony conviction resulted from his violation of the Texas Controlled Substances Act,
The historical laws invoked by the government, by contrast—namely, colonial Virginia‘s law making it a felony knowingly to receive a stolen horse, and other laws punishing mail theft and counterfeiting with death or estate forfeiture—all concern theft, fraud, or deceit. The government avers that the modern and historical laws both advance a common goal of eliminating traffic in illicit goods, and that is true in a sense: Legislatures have deemed both stolen horses and vials of drugs unlawful items. But extracting the government‘s proposed maxim from those historical laws—that legislatures can severely punish any individual caught with illicit goods—hinges on engaging in an unduly high level of generality. Under the government‘s theory, Congress could outlaw the possession of any quotidian object and then claim that all those caught possessing it lose their Second Amendment rights forever. We “must be careful not to read a principle at such a high level of generality that it waters down the right,” Rahimi, 602 U.S. at 740 (Barrett, J., concurring), and “a shifting benchmark” such as possession of any item deemed illicit “should not define the limits of the Second Amendment,” Diaz, 116 F.4th at 469.10
In short, the government‘s proffered historical analogues are not “relevantly similar” to the modern state and federal drug-trafficking laws underlying Kimble‘s predicate felony convictions. Bruen, 597 U.S. at 29. The government is not required to identify “a historical twin” to justify modern-day gun regulations. Id. at 30. But its contention—that historical laws severely punishing recipients of stolen goods or counterfeit securities justifies lifetime disarmament for individuals today convicted of selling illicit drugs—stretches the analogical reasoning prescribed by Bruen and Rahimi too far. See Connelly, 117 F.4th at 282.
2.
The government next reasons that the nation‘s history establishes a tradition of disarming those whose past criminal conduct evinces a special danger of misusing firearms. Kimble‘s record of drug trafficking, the government avers, underscores that he is the sort of dangerous individual that legislatures have long disarmed. We agree.
The Second Amendment allows Congress to disarm classes of people it reasonably
Class-wide disarmament accords with both history and precedent. “[G]overnments in England and colonial America long disarmed groups that they deemed to be dangerous.” United States v. Williams, 113 F.4th 637, 657 (6th Cir. 2024). Because “[s]uch populations, the logic went, posed a fundamental threat to peace and thus had to be kept away from arms ... governments labeled whole classes as presumptively dangerous.” Id. We acknowledged that history in Connelly, 117 F.4th at 278, concluding that the “undeniable throughline” in our nation‘s history is that “Founding-era governments took guns away from those perceived to be dangerous.” Further, “history and tradition support Congress‘s power to strip certain groups of” the right to bear arms. Diaz, 116 F.4th at 466 (emphasis added) (quoting Kanter v. Barr, 919 F.3d 437, 452 (7th Cir. 2019) (Barrett, J., dissenting)). In short, “Congress is entitled to make categorical judgments.” Vidal v. Elster, 602 U.S. 286, 319 (2024) (Barrett, J., concurring in part).11
But that is not the end of the analysis. Although Congress can label certain classes of people—such as felons—dangerous, courts cannot grant those determinations blanket deference because the “shifting benchmark” of felony status “should not define the limits of the Second Amendment.” Diaz, 116 F.4th at 469.12 Instead, judges must determine whether the government has identified a “class of persons at the Founding who were ‘dangerous’ for reasons comparable to” those Congress seeks to disarm today. Connelly, 117 F.4th at 278. In other words, the question before us is a familiar one: Is a law that disarms for life individuals with drug-trafficking felonies consistent with the nation‘s history of firearm regulation?
Once again, history and precedent suggest the answer is yes. The government invokes much of the same historical evidence that it did in Connelly to support its view that “persons whom Congress deems ‘dangerous’ can have their Second Amendment rights stripped,” Connelly, 117 F.4th at 277—namely, English laws disarming political and religious dissidents and American statements and practices suggesting that dangerous individuals could lose their Second Amendment rights.13 We rejected those analogies in Con-nelly because marihuana
But the government‘s analogues are a closer fit for drug traffickers than for occasional drug users. The English history invoked by the government suggests that while “good subjects” retained their rights to keep and bear arms, those judged “dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom” could be disarmed.14 The American colonies similarly empowered officials to “take from such Persons as they shall judge disaffected and dangerous to the present Government, all the Arms, Accoutrements and Ammunition which they own or possess.”15 The constitutional ratification debates also reflected the understanding that legislatures could disarm dangerous persons. As Justice Barrett has observed, the Pennsylvania and Massachusetts ratifying conventions convey that “the scope of founding-era understandings regarding categorical exclusions from the enjoyment of the right to keep and bear arms ... is about threatened violence and the risk of public injury.” Kanter, 919 F.3d at 456 (Barrett, J., dissenting). That same concern “animated English and early American restrictions on arms possession.” Id.
The “undeniable throughline” that Connelly recognized in our history—that “Founding-era governments took guns away from those perceived to be dangerous,” Connelly, 117 F.4th at 278—accords with (g)(1)‘s rationale for disarming Kimble. Like legislatures in the past that sought to keep guns out of the hands of potentially violent individuals, Congress today regards felon drug traffickers as too dangerous to trust with weapons.
That supposition is well supported by caselaw. The Supreme Court has long recognized “that drugs and guns are a dangerous combination.” Smith v. United States, 508 U.S. 223, 240 (1993).16 This circuit has also credited testimony that “drugs and guns are commonly found together and that drug dealers use guns to protect their business because of the inherent violence of the trade.” United States v. Yanez Sosa, 513 F.3d 194, 202 (5th Cir. 2008) (emphasis added). Other circuits have similarly acknowledged that “drug dealing is notoriously linked to violence.” United States v. Torres-Rosario, 658 F.3d 110, 113 (1st Cir. 2011) (citations omitted).17 For those reasons,
The Legislative and Executive Branches also associate drug trafficking with violence. In 1986, Congress added the term “drug trafficking crime” to a related provision in § 922(g)(1)‘s statutory scheme “to enhance the ability of law enforcement to fight violent crime and narcotics trafficking.”19 Before that amendment, the provision had referenced only “a crime of violence,” but on account of “confusion in the courts of appeals about whether drug trafficking constituted a ‘crime of violence’ under the statute,” the White House requested that Congress “amend the language of [18 U.S.C.] § 924 to include drug crimes in light of the fact that criminals involved in drug trafficking may often carry or use firearms during the commission of drug-related felonies.”20 Congress complied, and courts thereafter understood the amended law as “an effort to combat the dangerous combination of drugs and guns.” Muscarello v. United States, 524 U.S. 125, 132 (1998) (quotations omitted).
In short, the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches agree that drug trafficking is an inherently dangerous activity, and Congress has responded to that threat by disarming convicted drug traffickers via
We “conclude only by emphasizing the narrowness” of our decision. Daniels, 124 F.4th at 976. Kimble‘s conviction accords with the Second Amendment because Congress can categorically disarm individuals convicted of violent felonies like drug trafficking. That conclusion does not depend on an individualized assessment that Kimble is dangerous. We thus do not embrace the view that courts should “look beyond” a defendant‘s predicate conviction “and assess whether the felon‘s history or characteristics make him likely to misuse firearms.” Contra Pitsilides v. Barr, 128 F.4th 203, 211-12 (3d Cir. 2025) (quotation omitted). The relevant consideration is a defendant‘s “prior convictions that are punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year,” not unproven conduct charged contemporaneously with a defendant‘s (g)(1) indictment or prior conduct that did not result in a felony conviction. Diaz, 116 F.4th at 467 (quotation omitted).
Kimble‘s predicate convictions for drug trafficking convey that he belongs to a class of dangerous felons that our regulatory tradition permits legislatures to disarm. On that basis, Kimble‘s
JAMES E. GRAVES, JR., Circuit Judge, concurring in part and in the judgment.
Based on the facts of Kimble‘s case, I agree with the majority that Kimble‘s conviction should be affirmed. However, I disagree with the majority‘s determination that it need not conduct an individualized assessment pursuant to his as applied challenge. Thus, I respectfully concur in part and in the judgment.
The majority affirms Kimble‘s conviction “[b]ecause disarming drug traffickers accords with the nation‘s history and tradition of firearm regulation.” In so doing, the majority states that it rejects the government‘s argument that Kimble‘s predicate felony is analogous to Founding-era felonies punishable by death or estate forfeiture because it stretches the analogical reasoning prescribed by Bruen too far. Instead, the majority accepts the government‘s argument that drug trafficking is an intrinsically dangerous or violent felony. The majority concludes that
In its discussion of whether drug traffickers are a class of people deemed dangerous and historically disarmed, the majority states that “Congress today regards felon drug traffickers as too dangerous to trust with weapons,” and sets out various cases as support for such a proposition. That authority includes the following pre-Bruen cases:
- Smith v. United States, 508 U.S. 223, 240 (1993). This case involved a conviction under
18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1) , rather than§ 922(g)(1) . The issue was whether the trade of an automatic weapon for cocaine was considered the use of a firearm during a drug trafficking crime for purposes of that statute. The portion quoted by the majority comes from the following sentence: “When Congress enacted the current version of§ 924(c)(1) , it was no doubt aware that drugs and guns are a dangerous combination.” Id. at 240. TheSupreme Court further said that Congress would have no reason to intend for courts “to draw a fine metaphysical distinction between a gun‘s role in a drug offense as a weapon and its role as an item of barter; it creates a grave possibility of violence and death in either capacity.” Id. The significant factor was a gun‘s actual role in a drug trafficking offense. - United States v. Yanez Sosa, 513 F.3d 194, 202 (5th Cir. 2008). This case also involved a conviction for possession of a firearm(s) in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime under
18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A) , rather than§ 922(g)(1) , and the actual presence of a gun(s) in a drug trafficking crime.1 Id. at 198, 202. Significantly, this court also reiterated there that, “[t]he critical question, therefore, is whether a particular defendant possessed the firearm in furtherance of the drug trafficking offense, not whether drug dealers generally use guns to protect themselves and their drugs.” Id. at 202 (internal marks and citation omitted). Further, the portion quoted by the majority was actually the court‘s recitation “in substance” of the testimony rather than the actual testimony. Id. - United States v. Torres-Rosario, 658 F.3d 110, 113 (1st Cir. 2011). While the First Circuit did say that “drug dealing is notoriously linked to violence,” this was also a case where the defendant was still dealing drugs, i.e., heroin and cocaine, which were found in the room with the loaded gun. Id. at 112-13, 115.
- Folajtar v. Att‘y Gen. of the United States, 980 F.3d 897, 922 (3d Cir. 2020) (Bibas, J. dissenting). As acknowledged by the majority, it relies on a statement from the dissenting opinion. Further, this case involved a challenge to the application of
18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) to an individual convicted of tax fraud. Regardless, a post-Bruen Third Circuit case is discussed below. - Harmelin v. Michigan, 501 U.S. 957, 1002 (1991). The majority references a separate opinion in which Justice Kennedy called the contention that drug trafficking crimes are nonviolent “false to the point of absurdity.” Id. (Kennedy, J., concurring in part and concurring in the judgment). This statement was in reference to a defendant‘s Eighth Amendment disproportionate sentence claim when he was convicted of possession with intent of over 1.5 pounds of pure cocaine which would yield some “32,500 and 65,000 doses.” Id. Also, Justice Kennedy went on to discuss how “drug users” commit crime to buy more drugs or “because of drug-induced changes in physiological functions, cognitive ability, and mood,” etc. Id. This pertains to additional discussion below regarding this court‘s attempt to distinguish between drug users and drug traffickers.
- United States v. Harper, 766 F.3d 741 (7th Cir. 2014). The reference is to the statement that, “the possession of a firearm by a felon in the context of another offense such as drug trafficking is inherently more
dangerous than mere possession absent such activity.” Id. at 747. The remainder of that sentence said: “[A]nd that such a pairing elevates the danger of such firearm being actually used.” Id. In other words, possessing a firearm while committing a drug trafficking offense is inherently more dangerous than merely possessing a firearm or even merely possessing drugs. It is the “pairing” that “elevates the danger.” Id. - United States v. Barton, 633 F.3d 168, 174 (3d Cir. 2011). The reference is to the statement that “offenses relating to drug trafficking and receiving stolen weapons are closely related to violent crime.” Id. Notwithstanding that Barton had both drug and gun convictions, the court also significantly reiterated that “[t]o raise a successful as-applied challenge, Barton must present facts about himself and his background that distinguish his circumstances.” Id. Additionally, a post-Bruen Third Circuit case is discussed below.
- United States v. Ruiz, 412 F.3d 871, 881 (8th Cir. 2005). The majority references a statement that “[f]irearms are tools of the drug trade due to the dangers inherent in that line of work.” Id. But the context of the statement reveals that multiple guns and ammunition were discovered during searches of various locations pursuant to a drug trafficking case. The court was analyzing whether the evidence of the guns should be excluded based on arguments that they had no connection to the drug activity. Id.
- United States v. Diaz, 864 F.2d 544, 549 (7th Cir. 1988). The relevant conviction in this case was use of a firearm in relation to the commission of a drug trafficking crime in violation of
§ 924(c)(1) .
These pre-Bruen cases neither provide controlling authority nor are they sufficiently similar to provide persuasive authority for the majority‘s conclusion that it need not conduct an individualized assessment. The majority also cites Williams, 113 F.4th 637, which was post-Bruen. However, the quoted portion must be read in context. In that case, the Sixth Circuit reiterated that “history reveals that legislatures may disarm groups of people, like felons, whom the legislature believes to be dangerous—so long as each member of that disarmed group has an opportunity to make an individualized showing that he himself is not actually dangerous.” Id. at 663 (emphasis added). The court went on to say:
A person convicted of a crime is “dangerous,” and can thus be disarmed, if he has committed (1) a crime “against the body of another human being,” including (but not limited to) murder, rape, assault, and robbery, or (2) a crime that inherently poses a significant threat of danger, including (but not limited to) drug trafficking and burglary. An individual in either of those categories will have a very difficult time, to say the least, of showing he is not dangerous.
Williams, 113 F.4th at 663 (emphasis added to reflect that even someone convicted of a drug trafficking offense would have the opportunity to show he is not dangerous). The Sixth Circuit there also said that “district courts need not find a ‘categorical’ match to a specific common-law crime to show that a person is dangerous.” Williams, 113 F.4th at 663. Instead “district courts should make fact-specific dangerousness determinations after taking account of the unique circumstances of the
Citing United States v. Daniels (Daniels II), 124 F.4th at 976, the majority emphasizes “the narrowness” of its decision and concludes that “Kimble‘s conviction accords with the Second Amendment because Congress can categorically disarm individuals convicted of violent felonies like drug trafficking.”2 The majority then states “[t]hat conclusion does not depend on an individualized assessment that Kimble is dangerous. We thus do not embrace the view that courts should ‘look beyond’ a defendant‘s predicate conviction ‘and assess whether the felon‘s history or characteristics make him likely to misuse firearms.’ Contra Pitsilides v. Barr, 128 F.4th 203, 211-12 (3d Cir. 2025) (quotation omitted).” The majority further opines that the relevant consideration is simply the defendant‘s “‘prior convictions that are punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year,’ not unproven conduct charged contemporaneously with a defendant‘s (g)(1) indictment or prior conduct that did not result in a felony conviction.” (citing United States v. Diaz, 116 F.4th 458, 467 (5th Cir. 2024)). But, in Diaz, this court was merely quoting the relevant statute in the initial determination of whether there was a historical analogue, as follows: “For the purposes of assessing Diaz‘s predicate offenses under
While the majority acknowledges its disagreement with the Third Circuit in Pitsilides, it is also in disagreement with the Sixth Circuit, as discussed above in Williams. The majority cites no authority in support of rejecting an individual assessment. The majority concludes that there is no analogous Founding-era felony to support disarmament. Further, violence is not an element of possession with intent. Yet the majority then makes the blanket determination that drug trafficking is an intrinsically dangerous felony, and
As the majority acknowledges, this court concluded that
Further, there occasionally are cases involving people who were convicted of possession with intent offenses that did not involve a weapon or any violence. An example might be a situation where a young person, who has never been violent and was not armed, accepted a job to drive a car from one location to another without knowing it contained a hidden compartment full of drugs. That young person could then be disarmed for life without any chance of ever proving he was not a danger. Yet, a habitual drug user who continues to keep the drug traffickers in business would not be disarmed for life. There is no basis for such a disparity. For these reasons, I disagree with the majority‘s rejection of an individualized assessment of dangerousness. Thus, I respectfully concur in part and in the judgment.