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Holiday Spirit from Justice Ginsburg

By Melody Evans and Kirk Redmond

"It is better to receive than to give, the Court holds today, at least when the subject is guns." That is Justice Ginsburg's take on the Watson v. United States decision handed down today.The short of it is this: in a drugs-for-guns trade, the one getting the drugs may be up for a section 924c conviction under the 'use' prong, while the one receiving the gun is not guilty, at least of 'using' a gun 'during and in relation to a drug-trafficking crime'. "When a person pays a cashier a dollar for a cup of coffee in the courthouse cafeteria, the customer has not used the coffee. He has only used the dollar bill." Thus, "a person does not use a firearm, under 924(c)(1)(A), when he receives it in trade for drugs."The government argued this would result in atextual and asymmetrical policy, but the Court responded, "policy-driven symmetry cannot turn 'receipt-in-trade' into 'use'," and suggested Congress could fix any asymmetry, as it has not hesitated to respond to Court decisions with amending legislation in the past...continue to full post

Full post as published by Kansas Federal Defender on December 10, 2007 (boomark / email).