The Supreme Court has issued a major gun ruling that allows a federal gun ban targeting domestic violence abusers to remain intact – in a ruling that could undermine Hunter Biden’s appeal of his conviction on a different gun charge.
The 8-1 decision, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, provides that a person determined to pose a credible threat can have their Second Amendment rights infringed upon in a limited way.
Justice Clarence Thomas, who has been close to an absolutist on the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms, dissented.
Hunter Biden was convicted on gun charges in Wilmington federal court this month for lying when he swore he wasn’t using drugs on a form required for the purchase a handgun.
Hunter’s legal team has vowed to vigorously fight the conviction, and has been preparing an appeal based on Second Amendment gun rights protections.
If the court had ruled the other way, it might have signalled that the law upon which Hunter’s conviction was founded could itself have been found to violate the Constitution.
The Supreme Court 8-1 in a decision allowing the gun regulation regarding abusers to remain intact
It’s the first major Supreme Court decision on the matter since 2022, when the court expanded gun rights.
It relates to Zackey Rahimi, a Texas man accused of beating his girlfriend.
Rahimi had been involved in multiple shootings, and admitted to authorities that he was subject to a domestic violence restraining order. He had guns in his home in violation of that order.
The ruling comes amid a multi-year spate of mass shootings in the U.S., and deadlocks in Washington on President Biden’s major gun proposals such as a renewed ban on so-called assault weapons.
In 2022 Congress passed and Biden signed into law a measure imposing tougher background checks on gun purchasers along with provisions meant to encouarage state ‘red flag’ laws targeting people deemed a threat and a provision closing the ‘boyfriend loophole’ barring gun sales to convicted abusers.
A senior Biden campaign advisor responded to the ruling with a statement saying, ‘No American should overlook the startling reality behind today’s decision: Protecting domestic abuse survivors from gun violence should never be a question, but the fact it even had to be considered shows just how extreme Donald Trump and the gun lobby are.’
The decision came as the high court released multiple decisions, but not one dealing with presidential immunity