Biden DOJ asks Supreme Court to speed up case that could reinstate federal gun ban
Written by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is asking the Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court decision that struck down a federal law that prevents people under domestic violence-related restraining orders from owning guns .
Attorney General Merrick Garland makes a statement at the Department of Justice in Washington on August 11, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The Biden administration asked in its new petition (pdf) that the high court hear the case on a “highly accelerated schedule” because of the “significant disruptive consequences” of the lower court’s ruling. The petition was filed in court on March 17 but had not been registered as of press time.
The case comes as courts across the country are catching up with the Supreme Court’s landmark June 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, which held that the restrictions on firearms must be deeply rooted in American history if they are to survive constitutional scrutiny.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said on March 15 that the Bruen ruling offers little guidance to lower courts on how to interpret the decision, as Courthouse News Service reported.
“The gun lobby saw Bruen as a historic victory, but it is a significant challenge to police, law enforcement and the people of America when it comes to public safety,” Durbin said.
The case involves Zackey Rahimi of Texas, who pleaded guilty to violating a 1994 federal law – Section 922(g)(8) of Title 18 of the US Code – that prohibits a person who is subject to a warrant of estrangement from domestic violence. a firearm Rahimi was involved in five shooting incidents after the restraining order was issued against him in February 2020.
But when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit took up Rahimi’s case earlier this year, it struck down the law, finding it no longer constitutional under the principles laid out in Bruen.
The government failed to “demonstrate that section 922(g)(8)’s restriction of the Second Amendment right is consistent with our nation’s historic tradition of firearms regulation,” said the panel Prohibiting the possession of firearms by someone under a domestic violence restraining order “is an outlier that our forefathers would never have accepted.”
US Attorney General Merrick Garland said last month that the DOJ would appeal the ruling, but did not provide a timeframe for doing so.
“Nearly 30 years ago, Congress determined that a person who is subject to a court order preventing him or her from threatening an intimate partner or child cannot legally possess a firearm,” Garland said in a statement on Dec. February.
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