## Facts

- Randy Edward Hayes was convicted in West Virginia state court in 1994 of misdemeanor battery under a generic battery statute based on conduct against his then-wife.
- In 2004, after a 911 domestic-violence call, police found a rifle in Hayes’s home.
- The United States charged Hayes with possessing a firearm after having been convicted of a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence,” in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(9) and 924(a)(2), using the 1994 battery conviction as the predicate.
- The district court denied Hayes’s motion to dismiss the indictment; Hayes entered a conditional guilty plea preserving the legal issue.
- The Fourth Circuit reversed, holding that the predicate misdemeanor statute must have, “as an element,” a domestic relationship between offender and victim.
- The Supreme Court granted certiorari to resolve whether the domestic relationship must be an element of the predicate offense or may be proved in the federal prosecution.

## Issues

1. Whether a prior misdemeanor conviction qualifies as a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” under 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(33)(A) only if the statute of conviction includes a domestic relationship as an element.
2. Whether, instead, it is sufficient that the prior misdemeanor involved the use (or attempted use) of physical force (or threatened use of a deadly weapon) and was committed against a spouse or other qualifying domestic victim, even if the underlying statute is generic.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court reversed the Fourth Circuit (7–2).
- The Court held that the domestic relationship need not be an element of the predicate misdemeanor offense.
- In a § 922(g)(9) prosecution, the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the prior misdemeanor was committed against a victim in a qualifying domestic relationship, but that relationship may be shown as a fact of the prior offense rather than as a statutory element.
- The majority reasoned that § 921(a)(33)(A) creates two requirements: a force element and a relationship requirement tied to the offense being “committed by” a person in a specified relationship with the victim.
- The dissent would have required the domestic relationship to be part of the elements of the predicate offense and relied on lenity and notice concerns.

## Legal Principles

- Under 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(33)(A), a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” requires: (1) a misdemeanor offense having, as an element, the use or attempted use of physical force (or threatened use of a deadly weapon), and (2) commission of that offense by a person in a specified domestic relationship with the victim.
- The “domestic relationship” requirement is not required to appear as an element in the predicate statute; it is a circumstance that must be charged and proved in the later § 922(g)(9) prosecution.
- Statutory interpretation should avoid constructions that make federal firearms disability depend on state drafting choices where Congress targeted a defined category of offenders.
- Evidence establishing the qualifying relationship may be drawn from reliable records of the prior case (e.g., charging and plea materials) to show the offense was committed against a qualifying domestic victim.

## Conclusion

The Court held that § 922(g)(9) applies when a defendant’s prior misdemeanor necessarily involved qualifying force and, as proved in the federal case, was committed against a spouse or other domestic victim, even if the predicate statute did not include a domestic relationship element.


United States v. Hayes, 555 U.S. 415 (2009)