Joseph Carey plead guilty to conducting an illegal gambling business in 2003. As a convicted felon he is ineligible to possess a gun. In Heller the Supreme Court specifically excluded convicted felon from those who could possess weapons.

Carey now wants to have a gun. Therefore he moved in the United States District Court to expunge his record. The motion was denied, without a hearing, on the basis that the court did not have jurisdiction.

Carey appealed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Sixth Circuit held that “[a]n order on a motion to expunge a conviction is within the equitable jurisdiction” of the District Court. Therefore the proper action for the Sixth Circuit to take is to return the case to the District Court for it to consider whether or not, using its equitable jurisdiction it should grant the motion to expunge. But instead the Sixth Circuit affirmed the District Court decision saying that the District Court properly used its discretion in denying Carey a hearing and in denying his motion. The problem is that the District Court never used its discretion in denying the motion since it wrongly decided that it did not have jurisdiction.