Miller v. Commonwealth
Court of Appeals of Virginia
492 S.E.2d 482 (1997)
Martin Miller (defendant), a convicted felon barred from owning firearms, wanted to keep hunting and sought to determine whether he could legally own a muzzle-loading rifle, since Virginia law treated such rifles differently from other firearms. Miller asked his probation officer, the ATF, and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, and all of them affirmatively assured him a muzzle-loading rifle was legal for him to own; he then purchased one and was subsequently charged and convicted of possessing a firearm after a felony conviction. Miller appealed, arguing the conviction violated due process given his good-faith reliance on the officials' assurances.
Whether an individual who reasonably and in good faith relies upon a government official's affirmative assurance that an action is legal, when the official is charged by law with responsibility for defining permissible conduct for that type of action, may be prosecuted for that action.