Second Amendment claim of felon with 25-year-old false statements conviction may go forward

In Hatfield v. Lynch (S.D. Ill. Dec. 20, 2016), the plaintiff sued for a declaration that the government could no longer forbid him to own a gun; he has a felony conviction on his record, and the Supreme Court has held that disqualification of people with such convictions is “presumptively” valid, but here he argues that the presumption is rebutted: He was convicted of “one count of making false statements with regard to benefit claims under the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act … on February 28, 1992,” and hasn’t had any further convictions since then. The district court concluded that his case could go forward, because his complaint “plausibly suggests that the plaintiff has a right to relief above a speculative level since the categorical bans on firearm possession are presumptively constitutional valid, but are open to possible rebuttal.” Whether the plaintiff should actually prevail is left to future proceedings. …Read the Rest

Source:: NRA-ILA