United States of America v. Patrick D. Daniels

Gulfport, Mississippi, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with being a person who “is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance."

In April 2022, law-enforcement officers stopped respondent Patrick Daniels for driving without a license plate. App., infra, 2a. An officer approached the car
and recognized the smell of marijuana. Ibid. A search of the car uncovered several marijuana cigarette butts in an ashtray, a loaded pistol, and a loaded rifle. Id. at
2a-3a. Daniels admitted in an interview that he had used marijuana since high school and that he smoked marijuana “approximately fourteen days out of a
month.” Id. at 3a.

A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Mississippi indicted Daniels for possessing a firearm as an unlawful user of a controlled substance, in violation of
18 U.S.C. 922(g)(3). App., infra, 3a, 51a. The district court denied Daniels’ motion to dismiss the indictment, rejecting his contention that Section 922(g)(3) violated
the Second Amendment as applied to him. Id. at 51a-
60a. The court observed that several courts had upheld Section 922(g)(3) under “standards of history and tradition,” and it stated that it agreed with those courts’ decisions. Id. at 58a; see id. at 56a-60a.

Daniels was convicted after a jury trial. Judgment 1.
The district court sentenced him to 46 months of impris-
onment, to be followed by three years of supervised re-
lease.

The Fifth Circuit reversed. App., infra, 1a-50a. The court held that Section 922(g)(3) violated the Second Amendment “as applied to Daniels.”