Justice Clarence Thomas, one of the Supreme Court’s leading conservatives, found himself alone when the court handed down a major gun ruling on Friday.
Thomas broke with his eight colleagues, who voted to maintain the federal gun ban for people under domestic violence restraining orders, a decision that handed a victory to the Biden administration and gun control groups.
It’s a marked shift for Thomas, the author of the Supreme Court’s expanded Second Amendment test two years ago, known as Bruen, who was at the center of Friday’s case.
This test requires that gun regulations fit into the country’s historical tradition of regulating firearms. Chief Justice John Roberts, joined by seven of his colleagues, said Friday that banning guns for domestic abusers could be likened to a tradition of disarming people who pose a credible threat to safety.
“The question is whether the Government can take away the Second Amendment rights of anyone subject to a protective order – even if that person has never been charged or convicted of a crime. You can’t,” Thomas replied in his 32-page dissenttwice as much as Roberts’ majority opinion.
“The Court and the Government do not point to a single landmark law that abrogates a citizen’s Second Amendment right based on possible interpersonal violence,” he continued, referring to the statute in question, adding that he believes the government does not “ bore his burden.”
President Biden’s Justice Department defended the law by pointing to bail and conflict laws.
Thomas wrote that “neither is a convincing historical analogue,” insisting that the majority did not consider “vital differences” when reaching the opposite conclusion.
In a separate concurring opinion authored by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, she called Thomas’ opinion “the strictest possible interpretation of Bruen.”
“He selects the government’s historical sources one by one, regarding any basis of distinction as fatal,” wrote Sotomayor, joined by fellow liberal Elena Kagan.
The case follows several landmark Supreme Court decisions that have expanded gun rights over the past 15 years, with the dispute marking the justices’ first Second Amendment plenary case since establishing the Bruen test.
A Texas man’s challenge to his conviction under the domestic violence weapons law forced justices to consider the limits of its recent expansion and clarify the test for lower courts that have expressed confusion.
That man, Zackey Rahimi, was placed under a restraining order after dragging his girlfriend, with whom he has a son, to a parking lot and trying to shoot a witness. Rahimi later participated in a series of five shootings, court documents show, and was charged with weapons charges after police searched his home and found a rifle and pistol.
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