Supreme Court rules that domestic abusers cannot have guns

On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court found in an 8 to 1 decision that a federal law that bans domestic abusers from owning guns meets Constitutional muster.

The federal law disarms people under domestic violence restraining orders.

A Texas man was accused of attacking his ex-girlfriend, which whom he has a child with, and threatening a witness so was placed under a restraining order. A subsequent search of his homes subsequently revealed a rifle and a handgun. He was charged federally under this statute. He challenged the law's constitutionality. A lower federal court found that the law was unconstitutional as it deprived persons under a restraining order from their Second Amendment rights.

The Court ruling found that the taking of guns from suspected abusers does not conflict with the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority decision.

Roberts wrote that the law allows for the disarming of individuals who are found to pose a credible threat to the physical safety of another.

"Since the founding, our Nation's firearm laws have included provisions preventing individuals who threaten physical harm to others from misusing firearms," Roberts wrote in the ruling.

The decision was a win for President Biden's Department of Justice, which appealed to the Supreme Court to defend the statute after a lower court declared it unconstitutional.

"No one who has been abused should have to worry about their abuser getting a gun," said President Joseph R. Biden (D) in a statement.

Justice Clarence Thomas was the lone Justice who dissented.

Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, writing that "not a single historical regulation justifies that statute at issue." "Today's decision puts at risk the Second Amendment rights of many more. I respectfully dissent."

The Biden Administration's defense of the law was supported by 200 members of Congress, 23 Attorneys General, Everytown Against Gun Violence, and other gun control advocates.

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