Rehaif v. United States

Rehaif v. United States
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued April 23, 2019 Decided June 21, 2019
Full case name	Hamid Mohamed Rehaif, Petitioner v. United States
Docket no.	17-9560
Citations	588 U.S. ___ (more) 139 S. Ct. 2191; 204 L. Ed. 2d 594
Case history
Prior	United States v. Rehaif, 868 F.3d 907 (11th Cir. 2017); vacated, 888 F.3d 1138 (11th Cir. 2018); cert. granted, 139 S. Ct. 914 (2019).
Holding
In a prosecution under 18 USC § 922(g) and § 924(a)(2), the Government must prove both that the defendant knew he possessed a firearm and that he knew he belonged to the relevant category of persons barred from possessing a firearm.
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices Clarence Thomas · Ruth Bader Ginsburg Stephen Breyer · Samuel Alito Sonia Sotomayor · Elena Kagan Neil Gorsuch · Brett Kavanaugh
Case opinions
Majority	Breyer, joined by Roberts, Ginsburg, Sotomayor, Kagan, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh
Dissent	Alito, joined by Thomas
Laws applied
18 U.S.C. § 922(g), 18 U.S.C. § 924(a)(2)

Rehaif v. United States, 588 U.S. ___ (2019), was a case before the United States Supreme Court dealing with mens rea. The Court held that when a person is charged with possessing a gun while prohibited from doing so under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g), the prosecution must prove both that the accused knew that they possessed a gun and that they knew they held the relevant status.^[1]