In United States v. Vandyke, --- F.4th ---, No. 24-2861 (9th Cir. 2025), on the government’s appeal, the Court reversed the district court’s order dismissing an indictment charging Ryan VanDyke with illegal firearm possession in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8)(C)(ii), and remanded for further proceedings.
Section 922(g)(8)(C)(ii) prohibits firearm possession by an individual subject to a court order that “by its terms explicitly prohibits the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against [an] intimate partner or child that would reasonably be expected to cause bodily injury.”
VanDyke argued that application of the federal statute to him violated the Second Amendment. The district court agreed. The Ninth reversed.
In light of intervening precedent in United States v. Rahimi, 602 U.S. 680 (2024), we reverse. As the Court wrote in Rahimi, “[s]ince the founding, our Nation’s firearm laws have included provisions preventing individuals who threaten physical harm to others from misusing firearms.” Id. at 690. The Court emphasized that a historical analogue suffices; a “historical twin” is not required. Id. at 692 (quoting New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n, Inc. v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1, 30 (2022)). We also have a long historical tradition concerning “categories of persons thought by a legislature to present a special danger of misuse.” Id. at 698; see also United States v. Duarte, 137 F.4th 743, 756–61 (9th Cir. 2025) (en banc). Such categories include criminals facing serious pending charges on pretrial release. See United States v. Perez-Garcia, 96 F.4th 1166, 1182–84 (9th Cir. 2024), cert. denied, 145 S. Ct. 2707 (2025). VanDyke fits this description to a tee. We conclude that Section 922(g)(8)(C)(ii) is constitutional as applied to VanDyke.Section (C)(ii)’s “why” and “how” are analogous to two historical traditions of firearm regulation. The first tradition is individual disarmament based on a judicial determination of dangerousness, as embodied by the surety and goingarmed laws relied upon in Rahimi. 602 U.S. at 695–700. The second tradition is categorical disarmament, as manifested in laws forbidding firearm possession by whole groups of people whom “the legislature deemed dangerous.”We conclude that the justification for the entry of the no-contact order against VanDyke—and thus this application of Section 922(g)(8)(C)(ii)—was the state court’s implicit determination that he posed a threat to the physical safety of his victim and other protected persons. This is not just analogous, but virtually identical, to the justification that the Court upheld in Rahimi. Like our sister circuits, given such a strongly implied dangerousness finding by the state court, we see no need to require further documentation. See Boyd, 999 F.3d at 187; Gordon, 137 F.4th at 1157. VanDyke’s argument ignores the terms of Section (C)(ii) and the structure of Idaho law. Cf. United States v. Reese, 627 F.3d 792, 802–04 (10th Cir. 2010), abrogated on other grounds by Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (concluding, for similar reasons, that “no [explicit credible-threat] findings were necessary” to establish that Section (C)(ii) was intended to keep firearms out of the hands of those who pose a heightened danger of misuse towards an intimate partner or child).In addition to the tradition of individualized disarmament, America’s history of firearm regulation also includes “longstanding prohibitions” on firearm possession by certain categories of people. District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570, 626 (2008). Categorical disarmament is based on legislatively presumed danger, rather than an individualized assessment of risk. Duarte, 137 F.4th at 759 (“The historical record reveals a host of regulations that disarmed those whom the legislature deemed dangerous on a categorical basis.”).VanDyke falls within at least one category of people who were historically disarmed on a categorical basis: criminal defendants facing serious charges pending trial, including those eligible for pretrial release.Section 922(g)(8)(C)(ii) is constitutional as applied to VanDyke under the historical traditions of individual disarmament and categorical disarmament. We reverse the district court’s dismissal of the indictment.
