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Interesting Heller ruling from intermediate NC appeals court

By Douglas A. Berman

Though the Supreme Court's Heller ruling does not yet officially apply to the states, this legal reality has not prevented a North Carolina appeals court from handing down this interesting opinion rejecting a Heller-based Second Amendment challenge to a state prosection for felon in possession.  Here is how the ruling in North Carolina v. Whitaker gets started: Defendant was convicted by a jury of eleven counts of possession of a firearm by a felon. Defendant appeals on various constitutional grounds, primarily arguing that the recent decision of the United States Supreme Court, District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. ___, 171 L.E. 2d 637 (2008), requires this Court to hold that North Carolina?s law prohibiting possession of firearms by convicted felons violates defendant?s individual right to keep and bear firearms under the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 30 of the North Carolina Constitution...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on December 08, 2009 (boomark / email).