Supreme Court upholds law to keep guns away from domestic abusers

The Supreme Court has upheld a law designed to keep firearms out of the hands of domestic abusers.

The court’s 8-1 ruling in United States v Rahimi on Friday holds that “when an individual has been found by a court to pose a credible threat to the physical safety of another, that individual may be temporarily disarmed consistent with the Second Amendment.”

The only dissent came from conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, whose 2022 decision in a major Second Amendment case vastly expanded gun rights and opened the door for lawsuits across the country that tried to tackle the profliferation of firearms and severe rates of gun violence.

Friday’s decision is a sigh of relief for survivors of domestic abuse, and a “powerful reminder that the gun lobby cannot — and will not — be the arbiter of the lives of women and families across the country,” according to Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of gun violence reform group Moms Demand Action.

Zackey Rahimi pleaded guilty to violating a law that required him to relinquish his firearm because he had been subject to a two-year restraining order.

But instead of giving up his gun, he was involved in five shootings in a two-month span.

Rahimi argued that federal law violates his constitutional right to own a firearm, a decision affirmed by the right-wing-dominated Fifth Circuit federal appeals court just 15 days after the Supreme Court handed down a major decision in another landmark Second Amendment case.

The Supreme Court had made it easier for people like Rahimi to bring Second Amendment lawsuits after the conservative majority overturned a New York state law that restricted people from obtaining concealed-carry licenses.

That decision – written by Justice Thomas –