WASHINGTON, June 21, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - The US Supreme Court on Friday upheld
a federal law prohibiting a person subject to a domestic violence restraining
order from possessing a firearm.

"When an individual has been found by a court to pose a credible threat to
the physical safety of another, that individual may be temporarily disarmed
consistent with the Second Amendment," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in
the 8-1 opinion.

The case was the first involving gun rights to come before the court, where
conservatives hold a 6-3 majority, since a major ruling it issued last year
loosening gun restrictions.

In last year's decision, the nation's highest court said it would authorize
only "reasonable" exceptions to the Second Amendment right to bear arms and
would rely on historical precedents when it comes to regulating firearms.

The ruling left lower courts struggling to determine whether gun restrictions
before them are consistent with "the history and traditions" of firearms
regulation in the United States in the late 18th to the 19th century.

On the basis of that decision, an ultraconservative appeals court ruled in
March that a federal law banning 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 meant to suggest a
law trapped in amber."