McDonald County white supremacist Robert Joos is seeking some $23 million in damages from the federal government for alleged constitutional rights violations.
In a letter mailed from the St. Clair County Jail in Osceola and filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Joos said his rights are being violated as the government will not allow him to possess firearms as secured by the Second Amendment. Other violations include protecting himself and his property from unreasonable search and seizure, as outlined by the Fourth Amendment; possessing explosives and firearms, a right he said was guaranteed by the Ninth Amendment; and violation of his Tenth Amendment right to exercise power over his environment by activities such as protection, hunting, excavating, demolition, and others.
Joos, a convicted felon, said the government does not have a right to prevent him from having firearms while allowing other people to do so. He said that not knowingly possessing firearms and explosives is not relevant to his right to do so.
Joos asks for the return of all weapons he did not knowingly possess, as well as $100,000 per day in actual damages for each day he has been held, as well as $100,000 a day in punitive damages for each day held. So far, the amount adds up to $23 million.
Joos is slated to go to trial in late January on charges of being a felon in possession of firearms, two counts of unlawful transport of firearms and one count of transporting explosive materials interstate.
He was arrested in late June as part of an investigation into a 2004 mail bombing in Scottsdale, Ariz., that injured a black city official.
Osceola, Mo. —
