On January 20, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) agreed to a mutual dismissal in a Second Amendment case on appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.
This case, United States v. Litsson Antonio Perez-Gallan, involves a Second Amendment challenge to 18 U.S.C. Section 922(g)(8)(C)(ii), a federal law prohibiting firearm possession by individuals subject to certain domestic violence protective orders.
In May of 2022, Mr. Perez-Gallan was arrested for a domestic violence misdemeanor in Kentucky, leading to a state court order prohibiting firearm possession. In June, he was stopped near a U.S. border checkpoint while driving a tractor-trailer, where agents discovered a firearm he kept for self-defense, resulting in arrest and federal charges under Section 922(g)(8).
The entire case revolves around the fact that “The record does not reflect that he received notice of the proceeding or its subject matter, including that his firearm rights could be affected,” according to the U.S. District Court decision in 2025 granting the order to dismiss. “The question then is not whether a hearing occurred but whether that hearing satisfied Section 922(g)(8)(A)’s requirements of actual notice and a meaningful opportunity to participate.”
The legal proceedings included a multi-year back-and-forth beginning with an indictment by a grand jury in 2022, followed by Mr. Perez-Gallan’s move to dismiss on Second Amendment grounds.
The case reached the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, turned on the newly-issued Bruen decision, and then the Fifth Circuit’s Rahimi decision, on March 2, 2023, which the Supreme Court later reversed on June 21, 2024.
After additional, complex legal proceedings, on November 27, 2025, the district court granted a motion to dismiss on as-applied grounds, finding that the specific circumstances violated the Second Amendment. Although the government initially filed a notice of appeal, it finally rested in January of this year.
The dismissal was signed by Justin R. Simmons, chief federal prosecutor and United States Attorney for the Western District of Texas, and Marjorie J. Vincent-Tripp, assistant United States Attorney serving in the same district.
