Fooks v. State

What the court held

Robert Fooks was convicted under Maryland Public Safety section 5-133(b)(2), which bars firearm possession by anyone convicted of a common law crime who received more than two years' imprisonment; his predicate was a four-and-a-half-year sentence for constructive criminal contempt for willfully failing to pay child support. The Supreme Court of Maryland held the provision is in substance a prohibition on firearm possession by felons, that Heller, Bruen, and Rahimi treat such laws as presumptively lawful and consistent with the nation's regulatory tradition, and affirmed the judgment upholding the statute. A dissent would have required the predicate offense to be violent in nature.

Summarized from the court's opinion.

What this case is about

Second Amendment challenge to Maryland's ban on firearm possession by persons convicted of a disqualifying crime

GunMapUSA summary of the issue, not a quotation from the court.

Key Dates

• 2025-06-06 — Decided

Sources

• CourtListener — retrieved 2026-08-08