Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/21-857_4357.pdf
Page Number: 7.0

2 

JONES v. HENDRIX 

Opinion of the Court 

The question presented is whether that limitation on sec-
ond or successive motions makes §2255 “inadequate or in-
effective” such that the prisoner may proceed with his stat-
utory claim under §2241.  We hold that it does not. 

I 

In 2000, the U. S. District Court for the Western District 
of Missouri convicted petitioner Marcus DeAngelo Jones of 
two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, in
violation of 18 U. S. C. §922(g)(1), and one count of making
false  statements  to  acquire  a  firearm,  in  violation  of 
§922(a)(6).  The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit af-
firmed his convictions and sentence of 327 months’ impris-
onment.  See United States v. Jones, 266 F. 3d 804 (2001). 
After losing his appeal, Jones filed a timely §2255 motion to
vacate, set aside, or correct his sentence, which resulted in 
the vacatur of one of his concurrent §922(g) sentences but 
no other relief.  See United States v. Jones, 403 F. 3d 604 
(CA8  2005);  United  States  v.  Jones,  185  Fed.  Appx.  541 
(CA8 2006) (per curiam).

Years  later,  in  Rehaif  v.  United  States,  588  U. S.  ___ 
(2019), this Court held that a defendant’s knowledge of the 
status that disqualifies him from owning a firearm is an el-
ement of a §922(g) conviction.  In doing so, it abrogated the 
Eighth  Circuit’s  contrary  precedent,  which  the  Western 
District of Missouri and the Eighth Circuit had applied in
Jones’ trial and direct appeal.  See Jones, 266 F. 3d, at 810, 
n. 5. 

After Rehaif, Jones hoped to leverage its holding into a 
new collateral attack on his remaining §922(g) conviction.
But  Rehaif ’s  statutory  holding  satisfied  neither  of 
§2255(h)’s  gateway  conditions  for  a  second  or  successive 
§2255 motion: It was neither “newly discovered evidence,” 
§2255(h)(1),  nor  “a  new  rule  of  constitutional  law,” 
§2255(h)(2) (emphasis added).  Unable to file a new §2255 
motion  in  his  sentencing  court,  Jones  instead  looked  to