I wrote here about 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9), the federal statute that prohibits people who have been convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors from possessing firearms. Federal law also prohibits felons, drug addicts, "mental defective[s]," illegal aliens, and various other groups from having guns. 18 U.S.C. § 922(g). In the wake of District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), which held that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess firearms for traditionally lawful purposes such as self-defense, some of those prohibitions have been challenged on constitutional grounds.This post is an update on that litigation. The most frequent challenges have been to the law preventing domestic violence misdemeanants from possessing guns For example, the Seventh Circuit considered that issue in United States v. Skoien, 614 F.3d 638 (7th Cir. 2010) (en banc). The court found the statute "generally proper," though it reserved judgment on whether a defendant "who has been law abiding for an extended period must be allowed to carry guns again." And in United States v. White, 593 F.3d 1199 (11th Cir. 2010), the Eleventh Circuit held that "although passed relatively recently," the same statute "is a presumptively lawful 'longstanding prohibition[ ] on the possession of firearms'." Id. (quoting Heller, 554 U.S. at 626-27). Most recently, in United States v. Chester, __ F.3d __ (4th Cir. Dec. 2010), the Fourth Circuit considered and remanded a similar challenge. Here's my summary of that case, since it is our own federal circuit: In 2005, the defendant was convicted of [...]
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