The Fifth Circuit panel dismissed the DOJ’s assertion that the Second Amendment only applies to “law-abiding citizens,” noting that while that phrase does appear in both the Heller and Bruen decisions, it was used by justices as shorthand “in explaining that its holding (that the amendment codifies an individual right to keep and bear arms) should not “be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings.” The text of the Second Amendment, on the other hand, specifically notes that the right to keep and bear arms is a right “of the people”; an important distinction given the government’s argument that virtually any criminal act, no matter how minor or severe, could result in a lifetime loss of Second Amendment rights.