SCOTUS Taking Up Pivotal Gun Rights Case
The Supreme Court will take up a case involving the rights of convicted domestic abusers to own a firearm, according to an order list released Friday.
The case “United States of America v. Zackey Rahimi” involves a convicted felon, Rahimi, who was a suspect in several shootings in the Arlington, Texas, area in 2020 and 2021 and had a restraining order against him from his former girlfriend, according to the Washington Examiner.
Rahimi was convicted but appealed against a Biden administration law in 2022 barring people who have domestic violence restraining orders from owning a gun, and the Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear the case.
Rahimi assaulted his former girlfriend in 2019, prompting her to file a restraining order, according to The New York Times. He ignored the court order and threatened other women before committing five separate shootings, leading officers to find several guns in his home in violation of the law.
During his trial, Rahimi attempted to argue that he was within his rights to have the firearms, but he pleaded guilty in the shootings after a judge rejected his Second Amendment challenge to the law, according to the Times. He then was sentenced to over six years in prison.
He appealed the decision to the Fifth Circuit, which initially ruled against him in June 2022 but later reversed the decision in March and ruled that the law did indeed violate the Second Amendment since there was no historical precedent.
The appeals court ruling came after “the Supreme Court issued a decision last June establishing a new test to decide whether gun control laws are constitutional, one focused on history,” according to the Times.
The case of the United States v. Rahimi “would give the court a chance to explore the scope of its new test, which requires the government to identify historical analogues to justify laws limiting Second Amendment rights.”
Now, nearly a year after the Supreme Court announced the new approach in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the justices will hear the Biden administration’s appeal.
“The court often hears appeals of decisions holding federal laws unconstitutional,” the Times reported.
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