Washington:
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday upheld a federal law that prohibits a person subject to a domestic violence restraining order from possessing a firearm.
“When a court finds that an individual poses a credible threat to the physical safety of another, that individual may be temporarily disarmed under the Second Amendment,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the 8-1 opinion.
The case was the first involving gun rights to reach the court, where conservatives hold a 6-3 majority since a landmark ruling was issued last year loosening gun restrictions.
In last year’s ruling, the nation’s highest court said it would authorize only “reasonable” exceptions to the Second Amendment right to bear arms and that it would rely on historical precedent when it came to regulating firearms.
The decision left lower courts struggling to determine whether the gun restrictions before them are consistent with “the history and traditions” of firearms regulation in the United States in the late 18th to 19th centuries.
Based on that ruling, an ultraconservative appeals court ruled in March that a federal law prohibiting gun ownership by people with domestic violence restraining orders was unconstitutional for lack of historical precedent.
Roberts wrote that “some courts have misunderstood the methodology of our recent Second Amendment cases. These precedents were not intended to suggest a law stuck in amber.”
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