NEW YORK FELON SUES FOR GUN RIGHTS
THE CONSTITUTION DOES NOT ALLOW THE PERMANENT, LIFE-LONG DISARMAMENT OF CONVICTED FELONS IF THEY ARE NOT CURRENTLY DANGEROUS, FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS LAWSUIT ALLEGES
JB Nicholas outside in his Adirondack backyard. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
MALONE, NEW YORK Jan 4., 2026
Driving a personal and years’ long legal war to fully restore his civil rights to its final battle, a former felon in New York is suing to win back his Second Amendment gun rights.
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"If a convicted felon can be president of the United States and be trusted with the keys to the Nation's nuclear arsenal," the lawsuit alleges, "a formerly-convicted felon not presently dangerous has the Constitutional right to keep and bear firearms for training, target shooting, hunting and self-defense."
This reporter and publisher of The Free Lance News, JB Nicholas, is the plaintiff in the case. He filed the federal civil rights lawsuit in the US District Court for the Northern District of New York on Friday. Its officially titled Nicholas v Bondi. Defendants include Pam Bondi, Attorney General of the United States, and Steven James, Superintendent of the New York State Police.
A former resident of New York City, Nicholas now lives in Malone, New York—a small town on the Canadian frontier sandwiched between the largest wilderness area east of the Mississippi in Adirondack Park and the St. Lawrence River valley.
In addition to reporting for and publishing The Free Lance, Nicholas is licensed by New York State as a fishing, hiking and wilderness camping guide.
Now 55, Nicholas was 19 when he shot and killed a 26-year-old stick-up kid on Mar. 3, 1990. The man's former partner-in-crime testified at Nicholas's trial the pair regularly robbed people. They also robbed cocaine dealers and sold the stolen drugs. The shooting happened along the border of the Bronx and Mt. Vernon at the height of the "Crack Wars"—when New York City was the murder capital of America.
Nicholas was convicted of second degree manslaughter. He served 12 2/3 years in state prison before being paroled for good behavior in 2003. He obtained a bachelor's degree with honors from New York University in 2006 and went to work as a news photographer for the New York Post later the same year, his lawsuit and memoir Later to All That says.
Nicholas was first credentialed as a journalist by the NYPD in 2007. Except for relatively short periods he was officially credentialed by the City through 2025. He was also credentialed by the Secret Service to cover the US President "in close proximity" about half-a-dozen times, his lawsuit alleges.
He even covered an event at the White House in 2012, according to the lawsuit. Then-Pres. Barack Obama awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Bob Dylan, Toni Morrison, Pat Summit and more on May 29, 2012.
(Frames 1-4) Pres. Barack Obama awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Bob Dylan, Toni Morrison, Pat Summit and others at the White House, May, 29, 2012; (Frame 5 & 6) Democratic nominee for president Barack Obama and wife Michelle accepting the party’s nomination for president at Mile High Stadium, Denver, CO, on Aug. 28, 2008; (Frame 7) former Pres. Bill Clinton speaking with fans on the street in Harlem, New York. Photo credits: JB Nicholas.
Since 2015, Nicholas has worked primarily as an investigative reporter, publishing reports in the now-defunct Village Voice newspaper, New York City local news website Gothamist.com and more. Since 2023, he's reported, edited and published The Free Lance News.org news website.
For his relentless, in-depth, year-long coverage of the killing of inmate Robert Brooks by guards in a New York State prison, The Free Lance News is nominated for five Pulitzer Prizes.
Based on these facts and more, Nicholas's lawsuit alleges "I am rehabilitated. If I am not rehabilitated, no one is."
New York did not initially want to license Nicholas as an outdoor guide. He had to sue in federal court for that right. After Syracuse-based federal judge Glenn D. Suddaby ruled Nicholas had the federal constitutional right to work as a guide, New York capitulated and issued him the license on Dec. 5, 2023.
Nicholas also won a second federal lawsuit for the right to apply for a guide license in New Hampshire even though the state had a law banning all felons from applying. In 2024, then-Chief Judge of the New Hampshire District Court Landya B. McCafferty also found he had a constitutional right to work as a guide notwithstanding the ban. After that, the Granite State agreed in 2025 to change its laws and allow Nicholas and other convicted felons to apply.
But Nicholas lost a third federal lawsuit to get a fishing guide license in Maine—a case that caught the attention of the Supreme Court, but it ultimately declined to review.
That loss, he says, is one of the things motivating him to sue for his gun rights.
"The State of Maine called me an unrehabilitated criminal," Nicholas says. "That's not just an insult its wrong. Its not supported by any evidence and is contrary to the truckload of evidence I submitted that proves beyond any doubt I am rehabilitated."
"I figured if I can win the right to own guns," he adds, "Maine will have to finally admit I am rehabilitated and give me a guide license."
The new lawsuit in New York challenges a collection of federal and state laws that make it felonies for him to acquire, carry and use firearms and ammunition—even though his crime was committed decades ago and he is no longer "dangerous." Nicholas doesn't allege those laws are per se unconstitutional "on their face," only that they aren't constitutional "as applied" to him.
That means if he wins, the laws still stand, except he himself would be allowed to keep and bear firearms per federal court order.
The lawsuit relies on the latest Supreme Court decisions on Second Amendment rights. Read together, Nicholas says, they allow convicted felons who are no longer dangerous to keep and bear arms.
Citing the Court's 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v Bruen, Nicholas alleges "Felons are not explicitly excluded by the text of the Second Amendment itself from exercising the right to keep and bear arms—therefore they are presumptively included among the people the Second Amendment protects."
In fact, Nicholas alleges, "Felons served as soldiers in the Continental Army during the Revolution," according to Ken Burns' 2025 documentary The American Revolution.
In 2024 the Supreme Court did allow Americans "found by a court to pose a credible threat to the physical safety of another" to be disarmed. But the Court specifically limited its decision and wrote they may not be permanently disarmed. They only "may be temporarily disarmed," according to the Court's decision in United States v Rahimi.
At the end of the day, Nicholas explains, "Equal Justice Under Law" are the words carved into the white blocks of Vermont granite the Supreme Court's Washington, DC courthouse is made of.
"If those words mean anything," Nicholas says, "they mean Americans who are former felons can not be permanently deprived of any of their Constitutional rights—including the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms."
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For tips or corrections, The Free Lance can be reached at jasonbnicholas@gmail.com or, if you prefer, thefreelancenews@proton.me.