UNITED FOR DEMOCRACY: IN U.S. v. RAHIMI, EXTREME, OUT-OF-TOUCH JUSTICES ARE WORKING FOR THE NRA & RIGHT-WING BILLIONAIRES
Washington, D.C. – Today, the Supreme Court just heard oral arguments in United States v. Rahimi. Stasha Rhodes, Campaign Director of United for Democracy, issued the following statement on the Supreme Court’s first use of its radical and widely criticized “history and tradition” test, established in the Court’s June 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen.
“In 2022, the extreme majority on the Supreme Court established a new and radical test for gun safety laws that puts the most common-sense measures across the country in jeopardy–even protections as straightforward as stopping people with domestic violence restraining orders from accessing guns. Today, thanks to the extreme Supreme Court, public safety from gun violence could depend on whether a given law has an equivalent in the 18th century.
“People across the political spectrum overwhelmingly want stronger gun safety measures, an end to the mass shootings happening across our country, and strong protections for domestic violence survivors. But a handful of elite justices whose opinions are designed to bring back the era of horses and buggies now control the Supreme Court, with the power to change and direct our country’s future all on their own.
“It is clearer every day that extreme, out-of-touch justices on the Court are working for the NRA and powerful right-wing billionaires, protecting and advancing an unpopular, radical agenda at the expense of Americans’ rights, freedoms, and safety.
“Congress needs to stop the power grab happening before our eyes and enact reforms that restore the nation’s trust in the Supreme Court.”
BACKGROUND
For decades, federal law has protected domestic violence survivors from gun violence by prohibiting their abusers from accessing a firearm when they are subject to a domestic violence restraining order. After the Supreme Court’s devastating ruling in 2022’s Bruen case, an adverse decision in Rahimi could gut some of the strongest and most common sense gun regulations we have left.
Women of color, pregnant women, the LGTBQ+ community and women with disabilities experience disproportionately higher rates of domestic violence involving guns.
Women are five times more likely to be killed in a domestic violence incident when the abuser has access to a gun. Additionally, nearly 31% of gun homicides of children under the age of 13 are related to domestic violence.