(LibertyInsider.org) – A federal judge has rejected one of Hunter Biden’s key defenses in his ongoing legal battle to avoid a criminal conviction on gun charges. On May 9, District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika refuted Biden’s argument that the Second Amendment extends the right to bear arms to illegal drug users.
Biden’s lawyers had attempted to set a precedent for a decision in their favor by citing the ruling in United States v. Daniels. In that case, the 5th Circuit Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to ban drug users from owning guns in spite of the fact that Title 18 explicitly bars “unlawful users” from possessing a firearm.
Judge denies Hunter Biden's bid to dismiss gun charges https://t.co/hx8Ac5JNs4
— POLITICO (@politico) May 9, 2024
Judge Noreika rejected that argument. In her opinion, she pointed out that the ruling in United States v. Daniels explicitly applies to chronic users of marijuana, not those using harder drugs.
The 3rd Circuit Court also rejected a different attempt to overturn Biden’s gun charges the same day. A trio of judges reviewing that request ruled that Biden lacks any standing to appeal the lower court’s refusal to dismiss the indictments against him at this stage.
In that matter, the court outlined both the reasoning behind the rejection and the precedent for its decision not to intervene. “This appeal is dismissed because the defendant has not shown the District Court’s orders are appealable before final judgment,” it stated, referring Biden and his legal team to the 1984 case Flanagan v. United States.
In Flanagan v. United States, SCOTUS determined that defendants typically cannot appeal a judge’s pretrial decisions in a criminal case until there is a final verdict. Participating judges decided that allowing preliminary appeals before a trial is complete would undermine judicial process efficiency and violate rules against appealing before a final judgment.
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