1996),[1] is a case which was argued before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals on September 13, 1995, and decided on December 30, 1996.

Raymond Rybar, Jr., a federally licensed firearms dealer, had conditionally pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing an illegal machine gun under the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986.

[2] A federal district court had previously ruled in United States v. Rock Island Armory, Inc. that a conviction under 18 U.S.C.

[3] Rybar argued that these convictions violated his Second Amendment rights as well as the commerce clause of the United States Constitution.

Alito argued that the law under which Rybar had been convicted should be vacated, because Congress, in its lawmaking, had not made sufficient findings regarding the impact on interstate commerce clause to fully justify the court deferring to Congressional judgement that the law was authorized by the Commerce Clause.