Court Opinion

ID: 9475892
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:42:02.156933+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:00.924509
License: Public Domain

NOONAN, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur because of the express intent of Congress to make the amendments to the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act effective only 180 days after the enactment of the law. 100 Stat. 461 (1986). I do not believe that the definition is “a liability” in the sense of the Federal Savings Clause, 1 U.S.C. § 109. As the Supreme Court has said, the words “penalty” “forfeiture” and “liability” are “synonymous with the word ‘punishment’ in connection with crimes of the highest grade.” U.S. v. Reisinger, 128 U.S. 398, 9 S.Ct. 99, 32 L.Ed.2d 480 (1888), quoted Warden v. Marrero, 417 U.S. 653, 661, 94 S.Ct. 2532, 2537, 41 L.Ed.2d 383 (1974). It is a violent stretch of language to treat a definition as a punishment.