Supreme Court Score Card #4

Have off from work today? Great! More time to read Nurse & Lawyer!

United States v. Hayes Oh, this one might make your head spin a little. It’s a question about domestic violence. That’s health-related, right?

The question is, in order for a misdemeanor crime to be considered domestic violence, does the domestic relationship between the victim and offender have to be an element of the actual language of the crime the offender is convicted for, or does the fact that there is a domestic relationship involved, regardless of the statute under which the person is convicted, qualify it?

This matters because if it IS a domestic violence-specific misdemeanor, then the offender may never carry a firearm. If not, he might be able to.

Basically, some jerk beat his wife, and then, since he was actually convicted of battery, not wife-beating, he claimed that restrictions placed on domestic violence offenders didn’t apply to him. The court ruled, 7-2, that if the relationship exists, it was domestic violence, regardless of the fine details of the actual conviction. (Thanks, Justices Roberts and Scalia. You really got our backs.)

Lawyer says: Decency Win!