Henderson v. United States

Decided May 18, 2015. Elena Kagan delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 13-1487 · 575 U.S. 622 (2015) · Cited 141 times

Holding

A court-ordered transfer of a felon’s lawfully owned firearms from Government custody to a third party is not barred by §922(g) if the court is satisfied that the recipient will not give the felon control over the firearms, so that he could either use them or direct their use.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 9–0.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Andrus v. Allard · 444 U.S. 51 (1979)
• Keystone Driller Co. v. General Excavator Co. · 290 U.S. 240 (1933)
• Small v. United States · 544 U.S. 385 (2005)
• National Safe Deposit Co. v. Stead · 232 U.S. 58 (1914)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Elena Kagan’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (2015). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).