Stokes

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

EASTON STOKES, Plaintiff, No. C 19-04613 WHA

v.

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT ORDER RE CROSS-MOTIONS

OF JUSTICE, THE ATTORNEY FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

GENERAL OF CALIFORNIA, et al., Defendants.

16 INTRODUCTION A federal statute imposes a lifetime ban on possession of a firearm for anyone “who has been committed to a mental institution,” a statutory term requiring “robust judicial involvement,” according to our court of appeals. In the instant case, a teenager got high and, after a 72-hour treatment, medical personnel “certified” him for a further fourteen-day residential treatment. No judge was ever involved. Decades later, he now wishes to inherit two firearms from his grandfather. This order holds that the “certification” did not (and does not) bar him from possessing the firearms because it did not constitute a “commitment” within the meaning of the federal statute. Therefore, summary judgment for…