Supreme Court to Consider Hearing Guns/Domestic Abuse Case

The Supreme Court is set to decide whether to hear an appeal of a decision that vacated the conviction of a drug dealer because his Second Amendment rights were violated.

In February, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that a law making it a crime for people under domestic violence restraining orders to own firearms was unconstitutional.

In its decision, the 5th Circuit panel threw out the guilty plea and six-year prison sentence for Zackey Rahimi, who admitted to possessing guns found in his Kennedale, Texas, home after prosecutors said he participated in five shootings in December 2020, and January 2021.

Rahimi had been under a restraining order since Feb. 2020, following his alleged assault of a former girlfriend.

The order suspended Rahimi’s handgun license and prohibited him from possessing firearms, The New York Times reported Monday.

Rahimi, however, defied the order, according to court records.

The Times reported he threatened a different woman with a gun, leading to charges of assault with a deadly weapon. Then, he opened fire in public five times within two months.

The shootings prompted a search warrant of Rahimi’s home, where weapons were discovered. He was charged with violating the federal law.

In March, the Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court to allow a federal law stand that makes it a crime for people under domestic violence restraining orders to own firearms.

The Times added that the chances that the Supreme Court will agree to hear the case are good.

That’s because the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals initially affirmed Rahimi’s conviction but then reversed course after the Supreme Court last June issued a decision that established a new test to decide whether gun control laws are constitutional.

Under that test, the 5th Circuit’s three-judge panel unanimously ruled the law prohibiting people subject to domestic-violence orders from possessing firearms violated the Second Amendment because there was no historical support for it.

The case, United States v. Rahimi, No. 22-915, would give the justices an opportunity to explore the extent of its new test, which requires the government to identify historical decisons to justify laws limiting Second Amendment rights.

Reuters contributed to this story.