A three-judge panel of the Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals has unanimously ruled that the federal ban on gun ownership for anyone who has been “adjudicated as a mental defective or who has been committed to a mental institution” violated the Second Amendment rights of a 73-year-old Michigan man who was briefly committed to a mental institution decades ago.

“The government’s interest in keeping firearms out of the hands of the mentally ill is not sufficiently related to depriving the mentally healthy, who had a distant episode of commitment, of their constitutional rights,” wrote Judge Danny Boggs for the panel.

One commenter notes that much of the case centers on the refusal of the federal government to provide a mechanism for relief in these cases. In fact, liberals have blocked passage of funding to allow cases to be reviewed, and the Justice Department refuses to review cases at all. This case has far reaching consequences for those who were once involuntarily committed. It might be used to attack the provision, in a number of states, of prohibiting people who are under indictment, from possessing firearms, because they have not yet gone through due process; they are only charged, not convicted. Of considerable importance is the court’s decision to apply strict scrutiny to the Second Amendment, which is appropriate because this is a “fundamental right.” The opinion notes that the various circuits have applied intermediate scrutiny in a large variety of significantly different ways.

Learn more: U.S. Appeals Court Expands Gun Rights