Alan Gura represents both parties who were ruled by the 4th circuit court of appeals to have the their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms restored, after having lifetime bans on their 2A rights initiated 20 years ago after having plead guilty to nonviolent misdemeanors. The Obama administration appealed the case to SCOTUS seeking to reinstate the lifedtime bans, and now the Trump administration is continuing to seek cert.
This wouldn't seem to "square" with Trump's pledges to uphold the Sscond Amendment, including last month at the NRA annual meeting where he said, "I will never, ever infringe on the right of the people to keep and bear arms.”
The problem is that more nonviolent crimes now have
possible penalties of greater than one year (and apply to revocation of the 2A right even if not sentenced to over one year, or even sentenced to any jail time at all, as in these cases), which used to be a typical defining characteristic of "felony". I'll quote Charles Nichols stating the problem:
"18 U.S. Code § 922(g)(1) makes it a crime for anyone "who has been convicted in any court of, a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year" regardless of the nature of the crime.
If one commits the proverbial crime of "do not remove this tag under penalty of law" and that penalty is punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year then he is prohibited from possessing a firearm under Federal law even if he does not spend even a single day in jail."
Trump lawyers ask Supreme Court to reject 2nd Amendment claim by men who lost gun rights over nonviolent crimeshttp://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-court-guns-trump-20170525-story.htmlExcerpts:
Trump administration lawyers are urging the Supreme Court to reject a 2nd Amendment claim that would restore the right to own a gun for two Pennsylvania men who were convicted more than 20 years ago of nonviolent crimes.
The case of Sessions vs. Binderup puts the new administration in a potentially awkward spot, considering President Trump’s repeated assurances during the campaign that he would protect gun-ownership rights under the 2nd Amendment.
But the Justice Department under Trump has embraced the same position in this case that was adopted under President Obama: to defend strict enforcement of a long-standing federal law that bars convicted criminals from ever owning a gun, even when their crimes did not involve violence.
The decision is in keeping with Justice Department tradition to defend federal laws in court, even if the administration may not be enthused with the statute.
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[Both plead guilty to nonviolent misdemeanors, but neither spent any time in jail.] However, both offenses triggered the federal ban. Since 1968, federal law has prohibited people from owning a gun if they have been convicted of a “crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.” Although the two men pleaded guilty to misdemeanors, their crimes could have been punished by more than a year in jail.