A Third Circuit en banc court voted 8-6 on October 13 that federal law cannot keep Edward Williams disarmed for life over a 2005 Pennsylvania DUI. He litigated for nine years after a lawyer told him in 2015 that the misdemeanor, whose five-year maximum triggered the federal possession ban despite home confinement of ninety days to two years, barred him from guns; he sued in 2017.

A companion 12-2 decision left intact a firearms conviction tied to 2002 terroristic-threats charges yet left unsettled whether a completed sentence from decades earlier can support ongoing disarmament. Historical drunkenness laws involved only temporary confinement or guardianship, not permanent loss of rights after reintegration, and Williams had remained nonviolent more than twenty years, held one job over thirty years, and showed no addiction or violent traits. The rulings did not invalidate the statute nationwide.