Divided High Court Sides With Defense on Repeat-Offender Law (3)

A divided U.S. Supreme Court curbed mandatory minimum sentences for federal gun offenders with prior convictions, over dissent by Justice Brett Kavanaugh that said the ruling ignored congressional efforts to tackle gun violence.

Offenses that can be committed with a reckless mental state don’t qualify as violent under the Armed Career Criminal Act, the high court said Thursday.

The act applies to gun offenders with three prior violent felonies. Thursday’s ruling limits the act’s scope to exclude reckless offenses from triggering its 15-year minimums.

The case marked the court’s latest foray into which crimes qualify as violent under the act, ...