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Split Tenth Circuit panel overturns Second Amendment ruling for misdemeanant via mandamus

By Douglas A. Berman

Back in June, a federal district judge issued this brief opinion in US v. Engstrum, No. 2:08-CR-430 (D. Utah June 15, 2009), that ruled that the Second Amendment should allow someone being prosecuted for possessing a gun after having been convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor to present an affirmative defense "that he posed no prospective risk of violence."  As I noted in this post on the ruling, Engstrum was the first and so far only victory for a federal criminal defendant arguing that the Second Amendment should impact his federal criminal prosecution for a gun possession crime.  But, as detailed in this order issued by the Tenth Circuit late yesterday, this victory for gun rights did not last even two months. Here is the start of the order in In re United States issued by a Tenth Circuit panel upon the government's petition for mandamus seeking to preclude the defendant in Engstrum from getting a Second Amendment jury instruction: Petitioner United States of America has filed a petition for a writ of mandamus seeking an order from this court preventing the district court from instructing the jury that defendant, Rick Engstrum, may not be deprived of his Second Amendment right to bear arms under 18 U...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on August 14, 2009 (boomark / email).