Supreme Court Reverses 4th Circuit in Gun Law Case

By Keith Perine | February 24, 2009 11:01 AM | | Comments (0)

The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 on Tuesday that, under a 1996 law barring gun possession for people convicted of misdemeanor offenses involving domestic violence, the underlying offense did not have to include proof of a domestic relationship between the perpetrator and the victim.

"Congress' less than meticulous drafting...hardly shows that the legislators meant to exclude from (the law's) firearm possession prohibition domestic abusers convicted under generic assault or battery provisions," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the majority.

At issue was a law written by New Jersey Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg that expanded a 1968 federal gun control law to include a possession ban for misdemeanants involved in domestic violence. Lautenberg and two other Democratic senators, Dianne Feinstein of California and Patty Murray of Washington, had filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case.

The ruling reverses a 4th Circuit ruling that the misdemeanor offense itself must include proof of a domestic relationship between the defendant and the victim. Nine other circuit courts had ruled the other way.

"Today, the Supreme Court sided with victims of domestic violence and against the gun lobby," Lautenberg said.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Antonin Scalia dissented. Justice Clarence Thomas did not join one part of Ginsburg's opinion.

"The most natural reading of the statute, as it is laid out, is that the underlying misdemeanor must have as an element the use of force committed by a person in a domestic relationship with the victim," Roberts wrote. He added that the legislative history behind the 1996 law "does not amount to much."

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Tags: gun_control, Justice_Ginsburg, Supreme_Court

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