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Federal Firearm Rights Restoration Returns After More Than 30 Years: What the New DOJ Rule Changes

For more than three decades, federal law contained a procedure allowing some prohibited persons to seek restoration of their firearm rights, but the administrative process was effectively unavailable. That is now changing. On August 20, 2026, the Department of Justice published a final rule creating a functioning process for federal firearm rights restoration under 18 U.S.C. § 925(c) and new 28 C.F.R. Part 107.

The development is important for people with old felony convictions, but the new program is considerably broader and more complicated than a simple process for restoring the rights of people convicted of nonviolent felonies. The rule establishes detailed presumptions, extensive evidentiary requirements, and an individualized review focused on whether an applicant is likely to pose a danger to public safety and whether restoration would be contrary to the public interest.

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Short Answer

Yes. Flock cameras and other automated license plate readers can become important evidence in a Michigan criminal case because they can record a vehicle at a particular place and time and make that information searchable by law enforcement. Police may use those records to develop a suspect, locate a vehicle, corroborate a timeline, establish operation, support a traffic stop, or build a circumstantial case.

But Flock evidence has an important limitation. A camera observation may establish where a particular vehicle was seen, but it does not necessarily establish who was driving. That distinction can matter in many criminal cases and can become especially important in a Michigan DUI case where the prosecution must prove that the accused actually operated the vehicle while intoxicated.

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For the first time in more than three decades, the federal government has created a functioning process through which certain people prohibited from possessing firearms may apply to have their federal firearm rights restored. That development is particularly important in Michigan because restoring firearm rights under Michigan law does not necessarily answer the separate federal question.The Department of Justice published its final Federal Firearm Rights Restoration Program rule on August 20, 2026. The rule implements the application process authorized by 18 U.S.C. § 925(c) and establishes detailed standards for deciding who may regain federal firearm rights.

What Changed in Federal Firearm Rights Restoration in 2026?

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Short Answer

In a Michigan DUI causing death case, the prosecution must prove more than intoxication and a fatal collision. Michigan law formally calls the offense OWI causing death, but DUI is the term most people use to describe impaired-driving charges. The prosecution must prove that the defendant’s operation of the vehicle was both a factual and a proximate cause of the death. When another driver’s conduct, excessive speed, intoxication, road conditions, mechanical failure, or another intervening event materially contributed to the collision, proximate cause can become a central issue.

 
Proximate cause in a Michigan DUI causing death case is a separate legal issue from whether the accused was intoxicated. A blood or breath result may bear on the DUI allegation, but it does not by itself establish how a fatal collision occurred or whether the defendant’s operation legally caused the death.

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Retrograde extrapolation is the process of estimating a driver’s earlier blood alcohol concentration from a later test. In DUI and Michigan OWI cases, the calculation can appear precise, but its reliability depends on facts that are often missing.

Short Answer: Retrograde extrapolation in DUI cases is not a direct measurement of a driver’s BAC at the time of driving. It is an estimate built from a later blood or breath test, an assumed elimination rate, and assumptions about whether alcohol absorption was complete. Michigan courts generally allow delayed alcohol test results into evidence, but the scientific reliability of any back-calculation depends on the quality of the facts available to the expert, including drinking pattern, food intake, timing, body composition, and whether the person was still absorbing alcohol.

What Is Retrograde Extrapolation in a DUI Case?

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The disconnect defense in a Michigan OWI case applies when the chemical test result does not match the defendant’s observable behavior. If a breath or blood test reports a high BAC but the officer’s observations, police video, driving evidence, and field sobriety performance show little or no meaningful impairment, that inconsistency may create reasonable doubt.

This defense is especially important in high-BAC and Michigan Super Drunk cases, where the reported number is 0.17 or higher. At that level, prosecutors often expect a jury to assume serious impairment. But a high BAC number also creates a higher evidentiary expectation. If the person on the video does not look, speak, walk, or perform like someone at the reported BAC, the number itself may become vulnerable.

The disconnect defense does not prove that the driver was sober. It asks a more precise trial question: does the chemical result fit the person the officer actually observed?

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Short Answer

Michigan rape shield law, MCL 750.520j, generally prevents prosecutors and defendants from introducing evidence of a complainant’s prior sexual conduct, opinion evidence about sexual conduct, or reputation evidence about sexual conduct in criminal sexual conduct cases. The statute recognizes two narrow statutory categories of potentially admissible evidence: prior sexual conduct with the accused and specific sexual activity showing the source or origin of semen, pregnancy, or disease. Other evidence may be admitted only when exclusion would violate the accused person’s constitutional right to confrontation or right to present a defense.

Michigan rape shield law is one of the most important evidentiary rules in a criminal sexual conduct case. It affects what the jury may hear, what the defense may investigate, how cross-examination is limited, and whether evidence of prior third-party abuse, sexual knowledge, or prior false allegations can be used at trial.

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Michigan OWI for Sales Professionals: Job and License Risks

Michigan OWI for sales professionals can create career problems that go beyond court, fines, probation, or possible jail. If your job depends on driving to client meetings, maintaining a company car, passing motor vehicle record checks, or covering a sales territory, an OWI charge can threaten your mobility, reputation, and employment before the criminal case is finished.

Quick Answer: Can a Michigan OWI Affect a Sales Career?

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Gas chromatography is the laboratory method often used to measure alcohol in a Michigan DUI blood test. Although prosecutors may present the result as a precise scientific number, the real question is whether the underlying data supports that number. In many cases, the most important defense work begins not with the final lab report, but with the chromatograms, calibration records, quality-control data, and analyst decisions behind it.

Key point: A blood alcohol number is not self-proving. It is the final product of sample handling, instrument performance, laboratory protocols, and human interpretation.

What Is a Gas Chromatography DUI Blood Test?

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When someone is charged with a first-offense OWI under MCL 257.625, the question of whether to hire a defense attorney is, in practical terms, not a question at all. Because the charge carries up to 93 days in jail, the Sixth Amendment right to counsel attaches to every such prosecution.

While a defendant may theoretically waive that right, Michigan courts actively discourage waiver in OWI cases and grant it only in rare circumstances, and when a waiver is granted, the defendant is held to precisely the same standard as a licensed attorney: full knowledge of the law, the Michigan Rules of Evidence, the Michigan Court Rules, and the customs and protocols of the court.

In over thirty years of practice, the attorneys at the Barone Defense Firm have seen self-representation in a Michigan OWI case succeed almost never. The real question is not whether counsel is required, but what a skilled first offense OWI attorney can accomplish that no defendant standing alone realistically can.

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Contact Information
280 N Old Woodward Ave #200
Birmingham, MI 48009
Toll Free: 1-877-ALL-MICH (877-255-6424) Phone: 248-306-9158
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Troy, MI 48084
Toll Free: 1-877-ALL-MICH (877-255-6424) Phone: 248-306-9158
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Clarkston, MI 48346
Toll Free: 1-877-ALL-MICH (877-255-6424) Phone: 248-306-9158
The Federal Eastern District Court for Michigan has courthouses located in Ann Arbor, Flint, Port Huron, and Bay City, whereas the Western District Court also has courthouses located in Lansing, Kalamazoo, and Marquette in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. View More

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