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SCOTUS takes new gun case ... is this a Heller tea leaf?

By Douglas A. Berman

I am sure regular readers are tired of me linking the Heller Second Amendment case to various sentencing issues, but a new Supreme Court cert. grant today is only going to fuel my gun fires.  Here are the basics from this post at SCOTUSblog:In the second grant Monday, the Court agreed to hear a Justice Department appeal in U.S. v. Hayes (07-608), urging it to clarify the federal law that makes it a crime to have a gun after being convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.  The specific issue is whether the federal ban at issue requires that the convicted individual and the victim in the underlying crime have a domestic relationship ? that is, as a spouse, parent or guardian. Though it appears that Hayes is only about a technical statutory issue, the case could end up being about a lot more if Heller declares that there is an enforceable individual right to keep a gun...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on March 24, 2008 (boomark / email).