FEDERAL APPEALS COURT STRIKES DOWN RACIST CALIFORNIA LAW BANNING BLACK PANTHERS FROM CARRY GUNS IN PUBLIC—59 YEARS LATER
THE MULFORD ACT WAS SIGNED INTO LAW BY GOV. RONALD REAGAN AFTER THE BLACK PANTHERS CARRIED GUNS TO THE STATE CAPITAL IN 1967. COURT RULES IT UNCONSTITUTIONAL IN 2026.
Armed Black Panthers inside the California State Capital, May 1, 1967: Photo credit: Walt Zebowski, Associated Press.
MALONE, NY Jan. 2, 2026
The federal appeals court overseeing California has ruled that a law banning open carry of firearms violates the Second Amendment.
"California is attempting to address a general societal problem through materially different means than were used during either the Founding or Reconstruction," the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday. "California’s ban on open carry in counties with a population greater than 200,000 is therefore inconsistent with the Second Amendment."
The ruling comes in the case of Mark Baird, who sued for the right to openly carry a handgun for self-defense in 2019. The defendant in the case was Rob Bonta, Attorney General of California.
The California law Baird challenged banned open carry in counties with populations over 200,000 people. It effectively banned open carry for 95% of the Golden State's population, the Ninth Circuit found.
After Baird filed his lawsuit in 2019, the Supreme Court modernized its Second Amendment jurisprudence. In New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v Bruen, decided in 2022, the Court ruled that states or the federal Government must justify firearm regulations "by demonstrating that it is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
That means the regulation must be similar to a regulation that existed at the time the Second Amendment was ratified in 1791, or possibly that existed when the Second Amendment was applied to the states with the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868—the Supreme Court has not settled that last question yet.
Applying Bruen and citing a Georgia Supreme Court case from 1846, the Ninth Circuit in Baird held that "From the Founding to Reconstruction, it was well-established that 'a prohibition against bearing arms openly, is in conflict with the Constitution, and void.'”
Therefore, the Ninth Circuit explained, "California’s ban on open carry in counties with a population greater than 200,000 is therefore inconsistent with the Second Amendment."
In so ruling, the federal appeals court pointed out the "first restriction on public carry that California contemplated was a concealed-carry ban in 1856—which was intended to apply only to 'Mexicans,' who were considered dangerous."
The California law Baird challenged was a descendent of the Mulford Act, named after the California assemblyman, Republican Don Mulford, who sponsored the bill. It was signed into law by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1967.
The Mulford Act was, the Ninth Circuit wrote in Baird, "passed during a period of significant racial unrest"—the Civil Rights struggle by Blacks for equal rights in the 1960s. It was "a legislative response to the Black Panther Party’s activities, which included openly carrying firearms to protest police behavior in African American communities.”
"The catalyzing event," the Court explained, "occurred when '30 members of the Black Panthers protested on the steps of the California statehouse armed with .357 Magnums, 12-gauge shotguns and .45-caliber pistols and announced, ‘The time has come for Black people to arm themselves.’”
Based on these facts, the Ninth Circuit concluded, the law banning open carry "was also tainted with racial animus."
California has 90 days to apply for permission to appeal to the US Supreme Court.
It could also ask all the judges on the Ninth Circuit to re-hear the case as a whole, called an “en banc” hearing, in 14 days—which it will likely do. If the Ninth Circuit en banc agrees to re-hear the case but affirms the panel’s original ruling, it could also apply for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court then.
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