A criminal case against YoungBoy Never Broke Again over federal gun charges must be put on hold until the U.S. Supreme Court decides a closely-watched Second Amendment battle this spring, a federal judge says — likely delaying a trial that had been scheduled to start in July.
In an order Wednesday (Mar. 13), U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick said she would wait to proceed until after the justices had issued their gun-control ruling since the Supreme Court’s looming decision will likely touch on the same Second Amendment questions at play in NBA YoungBoy’s case.
YoungBoy’s lawyers say the law he’s accused of breaking — a ban on convicted felons possessing firearms — is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment, which protects the right to “keep and bear arms.” The pending Supreme Court case, meanwhile, will decide the constitutionality of a similar federal ban on gun ownership for domestic abusers.
After years of house arrest, YoungBoy (Kentrell DeSean Gaulden) had finally been set for a trial in July. Wednesday’s order will likely delay that trial since it could be June before the high court even rules on the pending case. But the delay might be worth it: If the Supreme Court rules against the gun restrictions in that case, it could greatly help YoungBoy beat his charges altogether.
The rapper’s attorney did not immediately return a request for comment.
YoungBoy was indicted by federal prosecutors in March 2021 after he was allegedly found with two guns during a September 2020 incident in Baton Rouge, La. He was charged with violating a long-standing federal law that bans convicted felons from ever again possessing guns — a rule that applied to him because he was convicted in 2017 of aggravated assault with a firearm.
In a motion filed last month, attorneys for the rapper argued that the charges against YoungBoy must be dismissed without trial because that federal ban violates the Second Amendment. They cited a landmark gun control ruling issued by the high court in 2022, which struck down a New York state law that had placed strict limits on carrying guns outside the home.
Echoing the language of that ruling, YoungBoy’s lawyers said the federal felon-in-possession statute was similarly unconstitutional because it was “inconsistent with our nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
“This prosecution seeks to restrict and deny Mr. Gaulden’s Second Amendment right to possess a firearm based solely on his status a felon and his alleged failure to comply with bureaucratic regulations,” the star’s attorneys told the judge.
In a response this month, federal prosecutors sharply disagreed, arguing that the gun ban for convicts had already been upheld in “hundreds of cases” since the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling. They acknowledged that a few judges had ruled otherwise, but that the “overwhelming majority of courts” had continued to enforce the law.
In Wednesday’s order, Judge Dick said she could not decide those arguments until the Supreme Court rules on United States v. Rahimi, the pending case challenging a federal law that prohibits the possession of firearms by persons subject to domestic violence restraining orders. The case, argued last fall, is expected to be decided by June.
It’s difficult to predict how the Supreme Court might rule on a given case, but the tea leaves don’t look good for YoungBoy’s position. After arguments in the Rahimi case in November, Reuters reported that the court “appeared inclined to uphold the legality” of the domestic violence gun restrictions, with several justices suggesting the Second Amendment wouldn’t stop the government from banning “dangerous” people from owning guns.
Whenever the Supreme Court rules on the Rahimi case, YoungBoy and federal prosecutors will have 14 days to file briefs on how the case should proceed.
