It isn’t every day that a Family Law issue makes it all the way up to the United States Supreme Court. Last month, however, the Court issued a decision in United States v. Hayes that could have a far-reaching impact on Domestic Relations and Criminal Law in Ohio and elsewhere. A lot of people realize that Federal law prohibits anyone who has been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence from possessing a firearm or ammunition. But now, after the Hayes decision, many more people are barred from possessing a firearm or even ammunition!
The Court’s decision in Hayes makes it so that an individual can be convicted of the Federal weapons prohibition statute even without having been convicted of a crime of domestic violence. Most domestic violence laws are written in a manner that one of the requirements necessary to convict is proof that there was a “domestic relationship”. There are many other crimes of violence where a “domestic relationship” between the defendant and victim is not an element for a conviction. The Supreme Court held that a “domestic relationship, although it must be established beyond a reasonable doubt in a § 922(g)(9) firearms possession prosecution, need not … Read More... “Who Says, I Can’t Own a Gun?”
On January 6, 2009, Governor Strickland signed 