Author Archives: Margaret

Margaret

Margaret Love is CCRC's Executive Director. A former U.S. Pardon Attorney, she represents applicants for executive clemency in her private practice in Washington, D.C.. She is lead co-author of Collateral Consequences of Criminal Conviction: Law, Policy, and Practice (4th ed. 2021), and served as an advisor to the ALI Model Penal Code: Sentencing.

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Restoration of firearm rights after conviction: Findings and recommendations

We are pleased to publish an updated version of our report on state laws governing loss and restoration of firearm rights after a criminal conviction: Restoration of Firearm Rights After Conviction: A National Survey and Recommendations for Reform.

This report, a version of which was originally published in June of 2025, finds that felony dispossession laws in most states extend well beyond what is necessary to advance public safety objectives, and that the process for regaining lost rights tends to be difficult to navigate if accessible at all.

Our report argues that broad categorical dispossession laws are more vulnerable to constitutional challenge under the Second Amendment where a state does not provide an easily accessible process for restoring rights based on an individualized assessment of public safety risk. It makes a number of recommendations to this end, which are summarized at the end of this post.  

Since our report was first published six months ago, there have been some changes in state laws warranting an update. More significant, however, in July 2025 the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) proposed to revive a long-dormant program under 18 U.S.C. § 925(c) for restoring rights lost under the federal dispossession statute. Originally administered by ATF, the revived program will be administered by DOJ’s Office of the Pardon Attorney. We decided that this development was important to cover in what is otherwise a report on state law, because of the close relationship between state and federal dispossession laws.

In a related development, DOJ seems to agree with our report’s argument that the existence of an accessible restoration mechanism may cure constitutional deficiency in a dispossession statute. Thus, the U.S. Solicitor General relied upon the renewed availability of administrative relief from federal restrictions under § 925(c) in arguing that the Supreme Court should decline to grant review in the case of a Utah woman federally dispossessed because of a dated conviction for food stamp fraud. See Brief for the Respondent in Opposition, Vincent v. Bondi, No. 24-1155, at 9 (Aug.11, 2025). For a review of Second Amendment cases on the radar of the Supreme Court this Term, see Kelsey Dallas, Second Amendment in the spotlight, SCOTUSblog (Nov. 13, 2025).

The government’s position in the Vincent case noted above suggests that the ease or difficulty of restoring lost firearm rights may assume a greater role in Second Amendment jurisprudence going forward.  This gives the final recommendation in our report added currency: “States should use the occasion of the revival of a federal administrative firearm relief program to reconsider analogous provisions of their own restoration laws and policies.” In other words, states should ensure that individuals who have been dispossessed because of their criminal record, but who pose no public safety risk, are able to regain their rights through a reasonably accessible individualized process.    

For ease of reference, here are the revised findings and recommendations of our report on Restoration of Firearm Rights after Conviction: 

FINDINGS:

  • Felony dispossession laws in most states extend well beyond what is necessary to advance public safety objectives. In more than two-thirds of the states, firearm rights are lost upon conviction for any felony, regardless of whether the conduct resulting in dispossession involved a risk to public safety, and loss of rights is indefinite. Only 13 states limit dispossession to violent crimes. 
  • The process for regaining lost firearm rights is complex and difficult to navigate in many states. Each state operates under its own complex legal framework with overlapping federal requirements that create further legal jeopardy for inadvertent violations. Broad categorical dispossession laws are more vulnerable to constitutional challenge under the Second Amendment where a state does not provide an easily accessible process for restoring rights based on individualized assessment of public safety risk.  
  • Regaining firearm rights is particularly challenging for state residents with out-of-state or federal convictions. Mechanisms for regaining firearm rights in a majority of jurisdictions are linked to the criminal case that resulted in dispossession, via pardon, expungement, or reduction of offense level. Those who do not live in the state where they were convicted may have no clear path to restoration, since many states do not give effect to extraterritorial relief.
  • Dedicated judicial or administrative firearm restoration mechanisms operating in a minority of states are available to all residents and appear to best serve the public interest. Decoupling firearm relief from the state criminal case gives those with out-of-state and federal convictions a chance to regain rights where they reside.
  • The prospective revival of a firearm relief program by the U.S. Department of Justice should encourage a close look at analogous state laws that will survive federal restoration of rights. Even if federal restrictions are lifted under this federal program, state restrictions may prevent individuals from fully regaining their firearm rights, especially if they no longer live in the state where they were convicted. In turn, expanded federal relief will encourage states to look carefully at their own laws, to determine whether state firearm restrictions based on criminal conviction should outlive federal ones.  

RECOMMENDATIONS: 

  • States should narrow the scope of their felony dispossession laws to correspond more closely to public safety risks raised by a person’s criminal conduct. It would be useful in this regard to study the experience of the states that dispossess only those convicted of serious violent crime, or that restore rights automatically to certain categories of those dispossessed.  
  • States should provide a procedure for regaining firearm rights that incorporates an individualized public safety determination and that is easily accessible to all residents. Every state should make procedures for restoring firearm rights broadly available and easily accessible to all state residents consistent with public safety concerns, regardless of where their residents were convicted. The dedicated judicial relief provisions adopted by Oregon and Virginia appear to offer the broadest, fairest, and most accountable opportunities for relief from state firearm restrictions. The judicial relief provisions of the Model Penal Code: Sentencing and the Uniform Collateral Consequences of Conviction Act, which authorize the sentencing court to relieve mandatory collateral consequences, also offer good models.
  • The federal government should make relief from federal felony dispossession under 18 U.S.C. § 925(c) broadly available to those who pose no present public safety risk. The Department of Justice (DOJ) should adopt regulations for its § 925(c) relief program that facilitate restoration of rights. As proposed, the regulations would exclude many people with minor convictions that are decades old, and impose burdensome procedural requirements even for those who are eligible. 
  • States should use the occasion of the revival of a federal administrative firearm relief program to reconsider analogous provisions of their own restoration laws and policies. Depending on the standards and policies adopted by the federal government, a state may decide to incorporate federal relief into its own laws, as a number of states have already done, or it may decide that an independent regulatory scheme best serves the public interest. 

 

 

 

 

 

SBA finalizes rule limiting consideration of criminal history in loan programs

Today, the Small Business Administration’s rule removing most criminal history restrictions in its federally guaranteed loan programs will be published in final form. This marks an important step in opening additional sources of business capital to justice-impacted entrepreneurs, and a boon to developing communities that thrive on the success of their small businesses.

The final rule makes few changes from the version published last fall for comment, which proposed removing most criminal history restrictions from the SBA’s business and disaster loan programs. The proposed rule is described in this post. The only substantive difference in the final rule is that business owners under indictment, along with those actually incarcerated, will remain ineligible for federally guaranteed loans.

The SBA noted that of the 19 comments received on the proposed rule, almost all were favorable. It also pointed out, as it did last fall, that there is no data indicating an enhanced risk of default from this population of entrepreneurs. At the same time, the SBA comments that even though it will no longer be conducting extensive criminal records checks on loan applicants, lenders may continue to do so.

In describing the background of the now-final rule, the SBA cites some eye-catching statistics indicating that in recent years it has been giving lenders the green light on hundreds of loan applications from business owners with a felony record, while disapproving only a handful. These statistics, which are consistent with the SBA’s responses to FOIA requests with which CCRC is familiar, would seem to indicate that the SBA has available to it data that could shed light on actual risk through default rates.  We look forward to learning more about this data, which could give banks additional incentives to make loans to justice-impacted entrepreneurs.

We have recently attended several programs sponsored by the Treasury Department and its agencies in which the issues raised by “fair chance lending” have been explored, and we expect to be continuing that conversation in weeks to come.

 

SBA proposes to remove criminal record restrictions in loan programs

On September 15, the SBA published for comment a series of rule changes eliminating criminal record restrictions in all of its various federally guaranteed business and disaster loan programs, including rules making business owners ineligible for loans if they are on parole or probation or under indictment.  Application forms and procedures will no longer inquire about a business owner’s criminal history, with one exception: Owners and principal employees who are “actually incarcerated” will remain ineligible. Comments on the proposed rule must be filed by November 14, 2023.

The proposed new rule follows the agency’s removal last spring of “character” as a loan criterion in the 7(a) and 504 programs, and its amendment of the applicable Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to eliminate the “character determination” through which business owners with a felony record had been denied access to federally guaranteed loans.  These earlier changes were described in our post of September 7.

The comments accompanying the proposed rule revision explain that it is “narrowly tailored to reduce barriers to access for qualified justice-impacted small business owners.” While the SBA will no longer verify an applicant’s criminal history (other than the fact of current incarceration) the rules changes do affect a lending institution’s ability to do so, “in accordance with their own policies, provided they do so in a manner that complies with the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and other relevant laws.”

Significantly, in proposing these new and important regulatory changes, the SBA relies upon empirical research to emphasize that criminal history has not been shown to have any negative impact on creditworthiness:

Importantly, SBA reviewed the relevant research and found no evidence of a negative impact on repayment for qualified individuals with criminal history records in any American business loan program. This lack of data demonstrates that continuing to rely on this restriction for that purpose would contradict the available evidence and although the restrictions may have been originally put in place with the goal of protecting program performance, the lack of data suggests continuing to rely on this restriction would reflect an outdated, inaccurate structural bias against individuals with criminal history records.

 

The SBA again relies upon research in stressing the policy benefits of its regulatory changes:

Specifically, research demonstrates that employment increases success during reentry and decreases the risk of recidivism, with entrepreneurship providing an important and distinct avenue for economic stability given persistent stigma from employers who may decline to hire people with criminal history records.

It is refreshing to see this federal policy grounded in factual research instead of unfounded assumptions about the risk of extending opportunities to justice-affected individuals, as so many other federal policies are.

At the same time, we remain concerned that, without the SBA acting in a screening capacity, lending institutions will themselves conduct background investigations of loan applicants, and apply record-related restrictions that mirror those previously applied by the SBA, or perhaps ones even more restrictive.  We noted in a post last spring, in connection with the SBA’s deletion of “character” as a loan criterion:

[T]he good news is that it appears the SBA will no longer bar banks from making loans to otherwise qualified applicants based on their criminal history. The less good news is that the agency seems to expect banks and other lending institutions to step into the void and apply their own restrictions on loans based on an applicant’s criminal history.

 

We expect to post further analysis of these important proposed SBA actions.

The Collateral Consequences Resource Center Goes Live!

The Collateral Consequences Resource Center website launches on Tuesday, November 18, 2014.  We hope it will fill a growing need for information and advice about the modern phenomenon of mass conviction and the second-class citizenship it perpetuates.

ccrc inkscapelogostackedThe legal system is only beginning to confront the fact that an increasing number of Americans have a criminal record, and the status of being a convicted person has broad legal effects. The importance of collateral consequences to the criminal justice system is illustrated by cases like Padilla v. Kentucky (2010), holding that defense counsel have a Sixth Amendment obligation to advise clients about the possibility of deportation. Civil lawyers too are mounting successful constitutional challenges to harsh consequences like lifetime sex offender registration, categorical employment disqualification, and permanent firearms dispossession, which linger long after the court-imposed sentence has been served.  Government officials have tended to regard collateral consequences primarily as a law enforcement problem involving the thousands leaving prison each year, but they are now considering how to deal with the lifetime of discrimination facing the millions who have long since left the justice system behind. Advocates are pointing out how counterproductive and unfair most mandatory collateral consequences are, and legislatures are paying attention. People with a record are organizing to promote change.

The time is right to launch the Collateral Consequences Resource Center, which will bring together in a single forum all of these diverse interests and issues. The Center’s goal is to foster public discussion and disseminate information about what has been called the “secret sentence.” Through its website the Center will provide news and commentary about developments in courts and legislatures, curate practice and advocacy resources, and provide information about how to obtain relief from collateral consequences in various jurisdictions. The Center aims to reach a broad audience of lawyers and other criminal justice practitioners, judges, scholars, researchers, policymakers, legislators, as well as those most directly affected by the consequences of conviction. It invites tips about relevant current developments, as well as proposals for blog posts on topics related to collateral consequences and criminal records: Contact Us.

 

“Second Chances for Teen Offenders”

This New York Times editorial urges states to seal or expunge juvenile records “so that young offenders are not permanently impaired by their youthful transgressions.”  It describes a new study from the Juvenile Law Center that concludes “only a few states have ironclad systems prohibiting employers and members of the public from gaining access to [juvenile] records.”

The first juvenile courts were established more than a century ago on the principle that children deserve special care under the law because they are vulnerable, because their transgressions tend to be nonviolent and because they can be expected, on the whole, to outgrow their youthful misbehavior.

These presumptions are borne out by data showing that 95 percent of young people enter the juvenile justice system for nonviolent crimes like theft or vandalism — behavior they typically leave behind when they move into adulthood. But because some juvenile court records remain open to the public when they should have been sealed or expunged, these young people can be denied jobs, housing and even admission to college.

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