The US Department of Justice is asking the Supreme Court to review a lower court’s decision that invalidated a federal law prohibiting individuals under domestic violence restraining orders from owning firearms.
The Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that these individuals have the right to possess firearms, and declared the federal law unconstitutional.
The DOJ argues that the US and England have a legal tradition of disarming those who pose a threat to society, and that the federal law serves this purpose.
“In keeping with that history, this Court explained […] that the right to keep and bear arms belongs only to ‘law-abiding, responsible citizens,’” the DOJ said.
The case at the center of this dispute is United States v. Zackey Rahimi, in which a man violated a civil protective order by possessing a rifle and a pistol.
The lower court’s ruling was overturned following the Bruen decision’s establishment of new standards for interpreting the Second Amendment.
The appeals court declared the federal law inconsistent with the country’s historical regulation of firearms and vacated the man’s conviction.