U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared inclined to uphold the legality of a federal law that makes it a crime for people under domestic violence restraining orders to have guns in the latest major case to test the willingness of its conservative majority to further expand gun rights (article available here).
The case involves Zackey Rahimi, who was the subject of a Feb. 2020 protective order in a Texas state court after an incident in which he assaulted his then-girlfriend, who is also the mother of his child, and fired a gun at a witness to the incident. The protective order barred Rahimi from going near his former girlfriend’s home and workplace, and it also prohibited him from having a gun.
In 2021, police searched Rahimi’s home because he was a suspect in a series of shootings. After they found a rifle and a pistol, he was charged with violating 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8), the law at the center of this case.
Rahimi sought to have the charge against him dismissed, arguing that the law is unconstitutional. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, in which the justices explained that courts should uphold gun restrictions only if there is a tradition of such regulations in U.S. history, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit agreed and threw out Rahimi’s conviction.
A ruling is expected by the end of June.