Henderson v. United States: the Battle for Firearm Property Protection

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Henderson v. United States
Docket No.: 13-1487

Argument Heard: Feb 24, 2015

ISSUE: 

The Supreme Court will have to decide if a felony conviction takes away a defendant’s full property interest in his or her firearms.  Under Federal Law a felony conviction makes it unlawful for a defendant to possess a firearms.  However, can a defendant upon conviction transfer his firearms to a third- party or sell the firearms for personal benefits.

California’s Criminal Immigration Reform

As of January 2015, a new Californian law will reduce the maximum possible sentence for a misdemeanor from 365 to 364 days. The single day reduction will remain a seemingly inconsequential change for United States citizens; however, the law, S.B. 1310, will have a drastic impact on the lives of noncitizens convicted of misdemeanor offenses.

Under the previous law, many misdemeanors were punishable by up to one year in prison. “That one year sentence, or even the possibility of a one year sentence,” can have a significant impact on a noncitizen’s immigration status. This is because the basis of deportation is not the actual length of the sentence, but rather is contingent on whether an offense is "punishable by a year or more."  Because sentences of exactly one year created this one-day overlap in definitions, many California misdemeanors were deportable offenses under the prior version of the law, even if they are relatively minor and resulted in little or no jail time.