This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, July 8th, 2015.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Anton and Scalia's recent opinions scaling back the power of the Armed Career Criminal Act may impact hundreds or thousands

of federal inmates.

Mary Price is the General Counsel of Families Against Mandatory Minimums.

She explains the importance of the case of Johnson v. United States.

Under federal law, a person with a felony conviction, a prior felony conviction, is not permitted

to possess a firearm or ammunition.

If one is convicted of possessing a firearm or ammunition, they're subject to a statutory

maximum of 10 years in federal prison.

That 10-year statutory maximum is transformed into a 15-year mandatory minimum.

If the felon has three prior felonies, either serious drug offenses or violent felonies.

And the question that was presented to the court this time again on the fifth occasion is what is a

violent felony under federal law?

And that's a really it's such an interesting question it should be very clear

to people what people what constitutes a violent felony.

So what were the choices that judges have been asked to make when it comes to making this determination?

That's a great question.

The federal statute that we're talking about is called the Armed Career Criminal Act,

and it starts out actually really well in defining the answer to that question.

Here's what it says.

It says that a violent felony is one that has an, as an element, the use of physical force.

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