Gregory Stevens v. United States

Section 922(g)(1) of Title 18 of the United States Code makes it a crime for a person convicted of a felony to possess a firearm at any time thereafter. Petitioner challenged the statute’s constitutionality on the ground that lifetime disarmament based on his legal status as a “felon” unlawfully abridges the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. The court of appeals rejected his challenge without resolving the constitutionality of the status offense. It relied instead on the view that the Second Amendment affords no protection to persons, like petitioner, who were on parole at the time of allegedly possessing a gun. The questions presented are:

1. Whether a court may bypass a Second Amendment challenge to the felon-status offense at 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) when the defendant could have been charged with possessing a gun while on parole, were such a prohibition to be enacted.

2. Whether § 922(g)(1), on its face, unconstitutionally abridges the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

3. Whether, if not facially unconstitutional, § 922(g)(1) violates the Second Amendment as applied to persons convicted of felonies not punishable by death.