Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared receptive to arguments in support of preserving a federal law that bans individuals under domestic violence restraining orders from possessing firearms.
Supreme Court justices on Tuesday appeared receptive to arguments in support of preserving a federal law that bans individuals under domestic violence restraining orders from possessing firearms.
The 1994 law was struck down by the New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this year after the panel of judges ruled that it failed a test set by the Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, which requires gun laws to be “consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who argued on behalf of the Biden administration, told the court that the law – intended to protect victims of domestic abuse – is in line with the country’s longstanding practice of restricting dangerous people, such as “loyalists, rebels, minors, individuals with mental illness, felons and drug addicts” from accessing firearms.
