Remember the "Lautenberg amendment" That deprives a citizen of his 2A rights for a MISDEMEANOR of "domestic violence" ?
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_08_09-2009_08_15.shtml#1250211510The Tenth Circuit divided 2-1 today whether the constitutionality of
banning guns for persons who have been convicted of a domestic
violence misdemeanor. The issues arises because federal prosecutors
petitioned for a Writ of Mandamus, to stop a Utah district judge from
employing a jury instruction which the prosecutors did not want. The
issue was whether a domestic violence misdemeanant can be criminally
convicted for possessing a gun if the jury decides that he poses no
threat of violence, after the defendant raises the issue as an
affirmitive defense.
In case no. [1]09-4145, Judges Hartz and Kelly voted to issue the Writ
of Mandamus which the prosecutors had sought. Judge Murphy dissented,
and would have set the issue for briefing.
The case involves two separate issues: first, whether the federal d.v.
gun ban is constitutional in all circumstances, and second, whether
the answer to the first question is so clear as to make mandamus
appropriate. On the second question, at least, I think Judge Murphy
has the better argument, although the majority opinion has some valid
points.
As for Judges Hartz and Kelly, who authored the majority opinion to
issue the writ, Judge Hartz's record on the Second Amendment suggests
hostility to the right. Judge Kelly's record, in contrast,
demonstrates that he takes the right seriously, and attempts to apply
it conscientiously to the cases at bar. (As detailed in my Denver
University Law Review article, [2]The Second Amendment in the Tenth
Circuit: Three Decades of (Mostly) Harmless Error, which was recently
cited in a concurring opinion by Judge Tymkovich in [3]United States
v. McCane, upholding the felon-in-possession statute.)
References
1.
http://www.ca10.uscourts.gov/opinions/09/09-4145.pdf 2.
http://law.du.edu/documents/denver-university-law-review/v86-3/Kopel.pdf 3.
http://www.ca10.uscourts.gov/opinions/08/08-6235.pdf