With a federal court ruling issued on July 13, 2023, Phillips & Thomas LLC has litigated a very important firearms rights case to a successful conclusion.  For the first time, a Missouri federal court has ruled that Missouri’s criminal expungement statute, RSMo. §610.140, does restore a person’s right to possess a firearm. 

The case is Daniels v. U.S. Department of Justice et. al., which is case number 4:22-CV-00475-RK in the Western District of Missouri, Kansas City Division.  The facts of the case were as follows.  In 2020, Plaintiff Timothy Daniels expunged a 1998 felony drug possession conviction from Johnson County, Missouri.  Missouri’s expungement statute, §610.140, specifically states that an expungement under the statute returns a person back to the status he or she held before the conviction, as if the conviction “had never taken place.”   

A year later, Daniels attempted to purchase a firearm.  The background check returned “prohibitive information,” which turned out to be the old 1998 conviction that was supposed to have been expunged.  Daniels administratively appealed the finding through the necessary channels as required by the F.B.I. and the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. 

The F.B.I. denied Daniels’s appeal, however.  In a letter he received from the F.B.I, Daniels was told that the expungement he received in 2020 “did not completely remove the effects of the conviction in question.”  In other words, even though Missouri’s expungement statute specifically said that an expungement restored a person back to the position he or she occupied before the conviction, the F.B.I. did not recognize the legal effect of the expungement.  Daniels, left with no other option, then filed suit in federal court in July 2022.

Both the Plaintiff and the Defendants filed cross-motions for summary judgment.  On July 13, 2023, the Court issued its ruling, granting summary judgment in favor of Daniels.  In its ruling, the Court reviewed the history behind the “choice of law clause” of 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(20) and the exemption clause of 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(2).  The Court then discussed the relevant Supreme Court and 8^th Circuit precedents.  The Court then turned to address the heart of the matter:

Next, the Court turns to the issue in this case: whether the expungement of Mr. Daniels’ prior felony conviction, under the whole of Missouri law, restored his firearm rights comparable to those enjoyed by law-abiding citizens in Missouri.  See also United States v. Sonczalla, 561 F.3d 842, 844 (8th Cir. 2009) (“for a person to have his civil rights restored…for the purposes of section 921(a)(20), the relevant state must actually have restored the felon’s right to possess firearms,” such that “[if] the applicable state law prohibits a person from possessing any type of firearm, then that person’s civil rights have not been restored for purposes of § 921(a)(20)”).

The Court then proceeded to discuss Missouri’s expungement statute, §610.140, and what effect it had a person’s firearms rights.  The Court decisively rejected the Defendants’ arguments that the “whole of Missouri law” imposed a residual restriction on Daniels’s right to possess a firearm.  The plain language of §610.140.8, combined with the Missouri case law dealing with the effects of an expungement, clearly demonstrated that an expungement fully restored a person’s right to possess a firearm. 

In other words, the government could not substitute its own definition of what a “conviction” was, or what an “expungement” was, in place of what the Missouri legislature clearly intended.  Missouri case law—specifically State v. Merritt, 467 S.W.3d 808 (Mo. banc 2015) and R.F. v. Owen, 596 S.W.3d 221 (Mo. Ct. App. 2020)—has made it clear that an expungement does, in fact, operate to restore a person’s gun rights.  The Court was not persuaded by the government’s argument that the expungement still left the Plaintiff with “residual limitations” that he had to deal with:

Under Missouri law as to firearms, the legal effect of an expungement order is comprehensive: Mr. Daniels is not prohibited under state law from possessing firearms despite his prior felony conviction; and even if it were required – which it is not – Mr. Daniels would not be prohibited from obtaining a concealed carry permit because of the fact of his prior felony conviction. After the expungement of his prior felony conviction, Missouri law does not single out Mr. Daniels or treat him differently or as more dangerous than any other law-abiding citizen when it comes to the possession of firearms, concealed or otherwise. Missouri law imposes no residual limitations on Mr. Daniels’ firearm rights flowing from his (expunged) prior felony conviction under which Caron’s “all or nothing” approach to the federal firearms framework attaches.

This is the first time that a federal court has addressed the question of whether an expungement under Missouri’s expungement statute, RSMo. §610.140, restores a person’s firearms rights.  This ruling will be an important decision for many people in Missouri who have received expungements, but have still been denied the right to possess a firearm. 

If you believe you have been wrongfully denied your firearms rights in Missouri or Kansas, please call our office. We can help. 

 

If you have questions about this legal issue, and whether it affects you, feel free to contact Phillips & Thomas LLC at 913-385-9900.