Schrader v. Holder

• Decision Date: 11 January 2013
• Docket Number: No. 11–5352.,11–5352.
• Parties: Jefferson Wayne SCHRADER and Second Amendment Foundation, Inc., Appellants v. Eric H. HOLDER, Jr., et al., Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

704 F.3d 980

Jefferson Wayne SCHRADER and Second Amendment Foundation, Inc., Appellants

v.Eric H. HOLDER, Jr., et al., Appellees.

No. 11–5352.

United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued Oct. 10, 2012.

Decided Jan. 11, 2013.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 1:10–cv–01736).

Alan Gura argued the cause for appellants. With him on the briefs was Thomas M. Huff.

Anisha S. Dasgupta, Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, argued the cause for appellees. With her on the brief were Stuart F. Delery, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Ronald C. Machen, Jr., U.S. Attorney, Michael S. Raab, Attorney, and Jane M. Lyons and R. Craig Lawrence, Assistant U.S. Attorneys.

Before: TATEL, Circuit Judge, and WILLIAMS and RANDOLPH, Senior Circuit Judges.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge TATEL.

TATEL, Circuit Judge:

Due to a conviction some forty years ago for common-law misdemeanor assault and battery for which he served no jail time, plaintiff Jefferson Wayne Schrader, now a sixty-four-year-old veteran, is, by virtue of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), barred for life from ever possessing a firearm. Together with the Second Amendment Foundation, Schrader contends that section 922(g)(1) is inapplicable to common-law misdemeanants as a class and, alternatively, that application of the statute to this class of individuals violates the Second Amendment. Because we find plaintiffs' statutory argument unpersuasive and see no constitutional infirmity in applying section 922(g)(1) to common-law misdemeanants, we affirm the district court's dismissal of the complaint.

I.

Enacted in its current form in 1968, section 922(g)(1) of Title 18 of the United States Code prohibits firearm possession by persons convicted of “a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.” 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). Section 921(a)(20)(B), however, exempts “any State offense classified by the laws of the State as a misdemeanor and punishable by a term of imprisonment of two years or less.” 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(20)(B). This case concerns the application of these provisions to convictions for common-law misdemeanors that carry no statutory maximum term of imprisonment.

Section 922(g)(1)'s prohibition on firearm possession applies, with some exceptions not relevant here, for life. The statute, however, contains a “safety valve” that permits individuals to apply to the Attorney General for restoration of their firearms rights. Logan v. United States, 552 U.S. 23, 28 n. 1, 128 S.Ct. 475, 169 L.Ed.2d 432 (2007). Specifically, section 925(c) provides that the Attorney General may grant such individuals relief “if it is established to his satisfaction that the circumstances regarding the disability, and the applicant's record and reputation, are such that the applicant will not be likely to act in a manner dangerous to public safety and that the granting of the relief would not be contrary to the public interest.” 18 U.S.C. § 925(c). But since 1992, “Congress has repeatedly barred the Attorney General from using appropriated funds to investigate or act upon relief applications,” leaving the provision “inoperative.” Logan, 552 U.S. at 28 n. 1, 128 S.Ct. 475 (internal quotation marks and alterations omitted); see also United States v. Bean, 537 U.S. 71, 74–75, 123 S.Ct. 584, 154 L.Ed.2d 483 (2002).

In 1968, while walking down the street in Annapolis, Maryland, plaintiff Jefferson Wayne Schrader, then twenty years old and serving in the United States Navy, encountered a member of a street gang who, according to the complaint, had assaulted him a week or two earlier. Second Am. Compl. ¶¶ 9–10; see also Wagener v. SBC Pension Benefit Plan–Non Bargained Program, 407 F.3d 395, 397 (D.C.Cir.2005) (explaining that, in reviewing district court's grant of motion to dismiss, the court must assume that facts alleged in the complaint are true). “A dispute broke out between the two, in the course of which Schrader punched his assailant.” Second Am. Compl. ¶ 10. As a result, Schrader was convicted of common-law misdemeanor assault and battery in a Maryland court and fined $100. Id. ¶ 11. The court imposed no jail time. Id. Schrader went on to complete a tour in Vietnam and received an honorable discharge from the Navy. Id. ¶ 12. Except for a single traffic violation, he has had no other encounter with the law. Id.

According to the complaint, “[o]n or about November 11, 2008, Schrader's companion attempted to purchase him a shotgun as a gift,” and some two months later, “Schrader ordered a handgun from his local firearms dealer, which he would keep for self-defense.” Id. ¶ 14. Both transactions “resulted in ... denial decision[s] by the FBI when the National Instant Criminal Background Check (‘NICS') computer system indicated that Mr. Schrader is prohibited under federal law from purchasing firearms.” Id. ¶ 15. The FBI later “advised Schrader that the shotgun transaction was rejected pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) on the basis of his 1968 Maryland misdemeanor assault conviction.” Id. ¶ 16. In a letter to Schrader, the FBI explained that he had “been matched with the following federally prohibitive criteria under Title 18, United States Code, Sections 921(a)(20) and 922(g)(1): A person who has been convicted in any court of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year or any state offense classified by the state as a misdemeanor and ... punishable by a term of imprisonment of more than two years.”

At the time of Schrader's conviction, “[t]he common law crimes of assault and battery [in Maryland] had no statutory penalty.” Robinson v. State, 353 Md. 683, 728 A.2d 698, 702 n. 6 (1999). Although Maryland later codified these offenses, seeMd.Code Ann., Crim. Law §§ 3–201, 3–202, 3–203, when Schrader was convicted “[t]he maximum term of imprisonment [for these offenses] was ordinarily limited only by the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment contained in the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Articles 16 and 25 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights,” Robinson, 728 A.2d at 702 n. 6. As the FBI explained in a declaration filed in the district court, because “[a]t the time of Schrader's 1968 assault conviction, Maryland law did not set a maximum sentence for misdemeanor assault,” the FBI “determined that the conviction triggered 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(20) and 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), which prohibit firearm possession by an individual convicted of a state offense classified by the state as a misdemeanor that is punishable by a term of imprisonment of more than two years.”

Schrader and the Second Amendment Foundation—an organization that conducts “education, research, publishing and legal action focusing on the Constitutional right to privately own and possess firearms, and the consequences of gun control,” Second Am. Compl. ¶ 2—sued the Attorney General and the FBI in the United States DistrictCourt for the District of Columbia, raising two claims. The first is statutory. Plaintiffs argued that Schrader's “conviction for misdemeanor assault cannot be the basis for a firearms disability under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), because Schrader was not actually sentenced to a term of imprisonment exceeding two years.” Id. ¶ 19. Plaintiffs further alleged that “Maryland's failure to codify a statutory penalty for a simple common law misdemeanor does not create a firearms disability under federal law for conviction of such common law misdemeanor offense.” Id. Second, presenting an as-applied constitutional claim, plaintiffs asserted that “barring possession of firearms by individuals on account of simple common-law misdemeanor offenses carrying no statutory penalties ... violates the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.” Id. ¶ 22. Plaintiffs sought “[i]njunctive relief commanding Defendants to withdraw their record pertaining to Plaintiff Schrader from NICS” and an order enjoining defendants “from enforcing 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) on the basis of simple common-law misdemeanor offenses carrying no statutory penalties.” Id. Prayer for Relief ¶¶ 1–2.

The government moved to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and plaintiffs cross-moved for summary judgment. The district court, concluding that plaintiffs had failed to state either a statutory or constitutional claim for relief, granted the motion to dismiss and denied the cross-motion for summary judgment. With respect to the statutory claim, the district court rejected plaintiffs' argument that Schrader's actual sentence of less than two years' imprisonment was dispositive, noting that “only the possibility of punishment of more than two years for a misdemeanor matters for purposes of § 922(g)(1).” Schrader v. Holder, 831 F.Supp.2d 304, 310 n. 4 (D.D.C.2011). Thus, the district court found Schrader's offense ineligible for the misdemeanor exception for offenses “punishable by a term of imprisonment of two years or less,” 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(20)(B), because the absence of a statutory maximum punishment meant that the Maryland court could have sentenced Schrader to more than two years' imprisonment, Schrader, 831 F.Supp.2d at 310. Finally, the district court rejected plaintiffs' argument that “uncodified common-law offenses are not ‘punishable’ by any particular statutory criteria and, therefore, do not fall within the purview of § 922(g) at all.” Id. at 309.

In rejecting plaintiffs' constitutional claim, the district court relied on the Supreme Court's observation in District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570, 128 S.Ct. 2783, 171 L.Ed.2d 637 (2008), that “ ‘the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited,’ ” as well as the Court's inclusion of “ ‘longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons' ” within a list of “ ‘presumptively lawful regulatory measures.’ ” Schrader, 831 F.Supp.2d at 311–12 (quoting Heller, 554 U.S. at 626–27 & n. 26, 128 S.Ct....