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Eleventh Circuit rejects Second Amendment challenge to federal conviction for misdemeanant firearm possession

By Douglas A. Berman

The Eleventh Circuit today in US v. White, No. 08-16010 (11th Cir. Jan. 11, 2010) (available here), rejects a defendant's claim that Heller creates constitutional problems for the federal crime of gun possession by a domestic violence misdemeanant.  Here is part of the legal fancy footwork used by the Eleventh Circuit to get to its desired outcome: We are called upon to decide whether the statutory prohibition against the possession of firearms by persons convicted of the misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, § 922(g)(9), warrants inclusion on Heller?s list of presumptively lawful longstanding prohibitions.  As the Supreme Court recently noted, § 922(g)(9) was passed in 1996 in response to Congress?s concern that ?existing felon-in-possession laws were not keeping firearms out of the hands of domestic abusers, because ?many people who engage in serious spousal or child abuse ultimately are not charged with or convicted of felonies...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on January 11, 2010 (boomark / email).