CARON v. UNITED STATES
No. 97-6270
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued April 21, 1998—Decided June 22, 1998
524 U.S. 308
Owen S. Walker argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs was Bjorn R. Lange.
Jonathan E. Nuechterlein argued the cause for the United States. On the brief were Solicitor General Waxman, Acting Assistant Attorney General Keeney, Deputy Solicitor General Dreeben, Edward C. DuMont, and Nina Goodman.
JUSTICE KENNEDY delivered the opinion of the Court.
Under federal law, a person convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year in prison may not possess any firearm.
The parties, reflecting a similar divisiоn among various Courts of Appeals, disagree over the interpretation of the unless clause in the following circumstance. What if the State restoring the offender‘s rights forbids possession of some firearms, say pistols, but not others, say rifles? In one sense, he “may not . . . possess . . . firearms” under the unless clause because the ban on specified weapons is a ban on “firеarms.” In another sense, he can possess firearms under the unless clause because the state ban is not absolute. Compare, e. g., United States v. Estrella, 104 F. 3d 3, 8 (CA1) (adopting former reading), cert. denied, 521 U. S. 1110 (1997), and United States v. Driscoll, 970 F. 2d 1472, 1480-1481 (CA6 1992) (same), cert. denied, 506 U. S. 1083 (1993), with United States v. Qualls, 140 F. 3d 824, 826 (CA9 1998) (en banc) (intermediate position), and United States v. Shoemaker, 2 F. 3d 53, 55-56 (CA4 1993) (same), cert. denied, 510 U. S. 1047 (1994).
The Government contends the class of criminals who “may not . . . possess . . . firearms” includes those forbidden to have some guns but not others. On this reading, the restoration of rights is of no effect here, the previous offenses are chargeable, and petitioner‘s sentence must be enhanced. On appeal, the Government‘s position prevailed in the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and we now affirm its judgment.
I
Petitioner Gerald Caron has an extensive criminal record, including felonies. In Massachusetts state court, he was convicted in 1958 of attempted breaking and entering at night and, in 1959 and 1963, of breaking and entering at night. In California state court, he was convicted in 1970 of assault with intent to commit murder and attempted murder.
In July 1993, petitioner walked into the home of Walter Miller, carrying a semiautomatic rifle. He threatened Miller,
In September 1993, a federal agent called on petitioner at home to determine if he had other unlawful firearms. Petitioner said he had only flintlock or other antique weapons (not forbidden by law) and owned no conventional firearms. Federal law, the agent told him, forbade his possession of firearms and was not superseded by state law. In December 1993, agents executed a seаrch warrant at petitioner‘s house, seizing six rifles and shotguns and 6,823 rounds of ammunition.
A federal jury convicted petitioner of four counts of possessing a firearm or ammunition after having been convicted of a serious offense. See
At first, the District Court rejected the claim that Massachusetts had restored petitioner‘s civil rights. It held civil rights had to be restored by an offender-specific action rather than by operation of law. The First Circuit disagreed, vacating the sentence and remanding the case. United States v. Caron, 77 F. 3d 1, 2, 6 (1996) (en banc). We denied certiorari. 518 U. S. 1027 (1996). On remand, the District Court, interpreting the unless clause of the federal statute, disregarded the Massachusetts convictions.
II
A federal statute forbids possession of firearms by those convicted of serious offenses. An abbreviated version of the statute is as follows:
“It shall be unlawful for any person—
“(1) who has been convicted in any court of, a crime punishable by imprisоnment for a term exceeding one year;
“to ship or transport in interstate or foreign commerce, or possess in or affecting commerce, any firearm or ammunition; or to receive any firearm or ammunition which has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce.”
18 U. S. C. § 922(g) .
Three-time violent felons who violate
Not all violent felony convictions, however, count for purposes of
“What constitutes a conviction of such a crime shall be determined in accordance with the law of the jurisdiction in which the proceedings were held. Any conviction which has been expunged, or set aside or for which a person has been pardoned or has had civil rights restored shall not be considered a conviction for purposes of this chapter, unless such pardon, expungement, or restorаtion of civil rights expressly provides that the person may not ship, transport, possess, or receive firearms.”
§ 921(a)(20) .
The first sentence and the first clause of the second sentence define convictions, pardons, expungements, and restorations of civil rights by reference to the law of the convicting jurisdiction. See Beecham v. United States, 511 U. S. 368, 371 (1994).
Aside from the unless clause, the parties agreе Massachusetts law has restored petitioner‘s civil rights. As for the unless clause, state law permits him to possess rifles and shotguns but forbids him to possess handguns outside his home or business. The question presented is whether the handgun restriction activates the unless clause, making the convictions count under federal law.
We note these preliminary points. First, Massachusetts restored petitioner‘s civil rights by operation of law rather than by pardon or the like. This fact makes no difference. Nothing in the text of
Second, the District Court ruled, and petitioner urges here, that the unless clause allows an offender to possess what state law permits him to possess, and nothing more. Here, petitioner‘s shotguns and rifles were permitted by state law, so, under their theory, the weapons would not be covеred by the unless clause. While we do not dispute the common sense of this approach, the words of the statute do not permit it. The unless clause is activated if a restoration of civil rights “expressly provides that the person may not . . . possess . . . firearms.”
III
The phrase “may not . . . possess . . . firearms,” then, must bе interpreted under either of what the parties call the two “all-or-nothing” approaches. Either it applies when the State forbids one or more types of firearms, as the Government contends; or it does not apply if state law permits one or more types of firearms, regardless of the one possessed in the particular case.
Although either reading creates incongruities, petitioner‘s approach yields results contrary to a likely, and rational, congressional policy. If permission to possess one firearm entailed permission to possess all, then state permission to have a pistol would allow possession of an assault weapon as well. Undеr this view, if petitioner, in violation of state law, had possessed a handgun, the unless clause would still not apply because he could have possessed a rifle. Not only would this strange result be inconsistent with any conceivable federal policy, but it also would arise often enough to impair the working of the federal statute. Massachusetts, in this case, and some 15 othеr States choose to restore civil rights while restricting firearm rights in part. The permissive reading would make these partial restrictions a nullity under federal law, indeed in the egregious cases with the most dangerous weapons. Congress cannot have intended this bizarre result.
Under petitioner‘s all-or-nothing argument, federal law would forbid only a subset of activities already criminal under state law. This limitation would contradict the intent of Congress. In Congress’ view, existing state laws “provide less than positive assurance that the person in question no longer poses an unacceptable risk of dangerousness.” Dickerson, 460 U. S., at 120. Congress meant to keep guns away from all offenders who, the Federal Government feared, might cause harm, even if those persons were nоt deemed dangerous by States. See id., at 119. If federal law is to provide the missing “positive assurance,” it must reach primary conduct not covered by state law. The need
Congress responded to our ruling in Dickerson by providing that the law of the State of conviction, not federal law, determines the restoration of civil rights as a rule. While state law is the source of law for restorations of other civil rights, howevеr, it does not follow that state law also controls the unless clause. Under the Government‘s approach, with which we agree, the federal policy still governs the interpretation of the unless clause. We see nothing contradictory in this analysis. Restoration of the right to vote, the right to hold office, and the right to sit on a jury turns on so many complexities and nuances that state law is the most convenient source for definition. As to the possession of weapons, however, the Federal Government has an interest in a single, national, protective policy, broader than required by state law. Petitioner‘s approach would undermine this protective purpose.
As a final matter, petitioner says his reading is required by the rule of lenity, but his argument is unavailing. The rule of lenity is not invoked by a grammatical possibility. It does not apply if the ambiguous reading relied on is an implausible reading of the congressional purpose. See United States v. Shabani, 513 U. S. 10, 17 (1994) (requiring use of traditional tools of statutory construction to resolve ambiguities before resorting to the rule of lenity). For the reasons we have explained, petitioner‘s reading is not plausible enough to satisfy this condition.
In sum, Massachusetts treats petitioner as too dangerous to trust with handguns, though it accords this right to
Affirmed.
JUSTICE THOMAS, with whom JUSTICE SCALIA and JUSTICE SOUTER join, dissenting.
The only limitation that Massachusetts law imposed on petitioner‘s possession of firearms wаs that he could not carry handguns outside his home or business. See ante, at 311. In my view, Massachusetts law did not “expressly provid[e]” that petitioner “may not . . . possess . . . firearms,”
Petitioner‘s prior Massachusetts convictions qualify as violent felonies for purposes of
The plain meaning of
Moreover, as the Court concedes, its own interpretation creates “incongruities.” Ante, at 315. Under the statute, whether a prior state conviction qualifies as a violent felony conviction under
I believe that the plain meaning of the statute is that Massachusetts did not “expressly provid[e]” that petitioner “may not . . . pоssess . . . firearms.” At the very least, this interpretation is a plausible one. Indeed, both the Government and the Court concede as much. See Brief for United States 16 (“grammatically possible” to read statute to say that its condition is not satisfied if the State does permit its felons to possess some firearms); ante, at 316 (this “reading is not plausible enough“). Accordingly, it is far from clear under the statute that a prior state conviction counts as a violent felony conviction for purposes of
The Court rejects the rule of lenity in this case because it thinks the purported statutory ambiguity rests on a “grammatical possibility” and “an implausible reading of the congressional purpose.” Ante, at 316. But the alleged ambiguity does not result from a mere grammatical possibility; it exists because of an interpretation that, for the reasons I have described, both accords with a natural reading of the statutory language and is consistent with the statutory purpose.
The plain meaning of