## Facts

- Gary Sherwood Small was convicted in a Japanese court of attempting to smuggle firearms and ammunition into Japan and served five years in prison.
- After returning to the United States, Small purchased a firearm.
- Federal prosecutors charged Small under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), which bars firearm possession by any person “convicted in any court” of a crime punishable by more than one year.
- Small pleaded guilty while reserving the right to argue that his Japanese conviction did not qualify as a predicate conviction under § 922(g)(1).
- The district court treated the Japanese conviction as qualifying, and the Third Circuit affirmed.

## Issues

1. Whether “convicted in any court” in 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) includes convictions entered by foreign courts.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court reversed and remanded.
- The Court held that “convicted in any court” in § 922(g)(1) refers only to domestic courts, not foreign courts.
- As a result, Small’s Japanese conviction could not serve as the predicate conviction for § 922(g)(1) liability.

## Legal Principles

- Absent a clear indication to the contrary, a domestically oriented federal criminal statute is presumed to address domestic concerns; that presumption supported reading “any court” in § 922(g)(1) as “any domestic court.”
- Although “any” is broad, its meaning is context-dependent and does not necessarily extend to foreign institutions when the statutory scheme is domestic in orientation.
- Foreign convictions are a less reliable proxy for the risk category targeted by § 922(g)(1) because foreign legal definitions, punishments, and procedural protections may diverge from U.S. norms.
- Construing § 922(g)(1) to include foreign convictions would create administrative burdens and uncertainty, requiring difficult assessments of foreign law and fairness for charging and compliance purposes.
- The statute’s context and structure did not clearly show congressional intent to include foreign convictions, and the legislative materials did not supply affirmative evidence of such an intent.

## Conclusion

The Court construed § 922(g)(1)’s “convicted in any court” language to exclude foreign convictions, limiting the felon-in-possession disability to predicate convictions from domestic (federal and state) courts unless Congress clearly provides otherwise.


Small v. United States, 544 U.S. 385 (2005)