Schrader v. Holder

Schrader (plaintiff), joined by the Second Amendment Foundation, sued Attorney General Holder (defendant) to challenge 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1)'s lifelong firearm ban as applied to him, based on a 40-year-old Maryland misdemeanor assault conviction; as a common-law crime, that offense carried no statutory maximum penalty, though it was theoretically punishable by more than two years. Schrader's own sentence involved no imprisonment, and he went on to serve honorably in the Navy in Vietnam with no further legal trouble besides a minor traffic violation. The federal statute's exception for state-law misdemeanors, found in § 921(a)(20), applies only if the offense is punishable by no more than two years' imprisonment, and the district court dismissed Schrader's challenge.