WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court says a Maryland veteran can’t own a gun because of a misdemeanor assault conviction more than four decades ago.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Friday turned away an appeal from 68-year-old Navy veteran Jefferson Wayne Schrader, who sued after failing a 2008 background check.

Schrader was convicted of misdemeanor assault and battery and fined $100 after a fistfight in Annapolis, Md., in 1968.

Federal law says gun owners cannot have a state misdemeanor conviction with a possible sentence of more than two years. In 1968, Maryland did not have a maximum prison penalty for misdemeanor assault.

The appeals court agreed Schrader could have been given more than two years in prison, and so he is ineligible to own a gun.

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