United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Tot v. United States, 319 U.S. 463 (1943)

Tot v. United States

No. 569

Argued April 5, 1943

Decided June 7, 1943

319 U.S. 463

Syllabus

1. Sec. 2(f) of the Federal Firearms Act, where it provides that it shall be unlawful for any person who has been convicted of a crime of violence or is a fugitive from justice to receive any firearm or ammunition "which has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce," is confined to the receipt of firearms or ammunition as a part of interstate transportation, and does not extend to the receipt, in an intrastate transaction, of such articles which, at come prior time, have been transported interstate. P. 319 U. S. 466.

2. Congress was without power to create the presumptions sought to be created by § 2(f) of the Federal Firearms Act, to-wit: that, from the prisoner's prior conviction of a crime of violence and his present possession of a firearm or ammunition, it shall be presumed (1) that the article was received by him in interstate or foreign commerce, and (2) that such receipt occurred after July 30, 1938, the effective date of the statute. P. 319 U. S. 466.

3. A statutory presumption cannot be sustained if there be no rational connection in common experience between the fact proved and the ultimate fact presumed. P. 319 U. S. 467.

131 F.2d 261, reversed. 131 F.2d 614, affirmed.

CERTIORARI, 317 U.S. 623 (No. 569), to review the affirmance of a conviction under the Federal Firearms Act, and certiorari, 318 U.S. 748 (No. 636), to review a judgment reversing a like conviction.

Page 319 U. S. 464