by Steve Klitzman, Chair of Temple Sinai’s Gun Violence Prevention Group
This fall, the Supreme Court will review a significant gun rights case challenging the constitutionality of a federal prohibition on gun possession by individuals subject to domestic violence restraining orders. Earlier this year, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower Texas U.S. District Court striking down the ban as a violation of the Second Amendment in the case of United States v. Rahimi.
On August 21, 2023, a number of interfaith groups filed an amicus curiae brief urging the Supreme Court to reverse the 5th Circuit decision and keep guns out of the hands of domestic violence abusers. Fourteen Jewish groups joined the brief, including the Jewish Gun Violence Prevention Roundtable (to which the GVP Group belongs).
The brief was initiated by Jewish Women International whose mission to end violence against women is deeply personal; it is in response to the murder of one of their own members who was shot and killed by her husband. In describing its brief, JWI noted that its “unique contribution is to share the experiences of victims and survivors who turned to faith leaders. In times of stress and trauma, people often turn to their clergy and communities. Faith leaders deeply understand the fear, threat, and lethality of abusers with guns. This brief brings these voices and stories to the Court.”
To access this amicus brief, click here.
For discussion of the extremely violent history of Zackey Rahimi justifying his domestic violence restraining order, read a SCOTUS Blog post from Amy Howe here.
Why did the 5th Circuit, which at first upheld Rahimi’s conviction, later issue a new opinion throwing out the conviction as a 2nd Amendment violation? Despite the restraining order, the court reasoned, Rahimi still retained his right to bear arms under the Second Amendment unless the federal government could show that the ban was consistent with the country’s “historical tradition” of regulating firearms. Because it was not, the court of appeals argued, the law is unconstitutional.
“The Biden Administration came quickly to the Supreme Court,” wrote Howe in SCOTUS Blog, “asking the justices to grant review and reverse the 5th Circuit’s ruling. Emphasizing that ‘governments have long disarmed individuals who pose a threat to the safety of others,’ and that the law ‘falls comfortably within that tradition,’ U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the justices that allowing the 5th Circuit’s decision to stand would ‘threaten grave harms for victims of domestic violence.’”
Douglas Letter, Brady’s Chief Legal Officer, issued a statement on the Supreme Court’s announcement it would review the Rahimi case. Letter said: “prohibiting domestic violence abusers from accessing firearms is common sense, life-saving and constitutional. Firearms are the most common weapons used in domestic violence homicides, with female intimate partners more likely to be murdered with a gun than by all other means combined. (Recent research shows that having a gun in a home doubles the risk of homicide, triples the risk of suicide, and increases the risk of accidental and domestic abuse shootings.)
Letter concluded that “the Fifth Circuit’s decision in Rahimi is egregiously wrong and is mistaken under the Supreme Court’s instructions in the Bruen case. Brady looks forward to the Supreme Court hearing this case and correcting this terribly misguided ruling.”
The GVP Group will closely monitor the Supreme Court’s consideration of the Rahimi case in its 2023-2024 term. To join Temple Sinai’s Gun Violence Prevention Google Group, email Jenny Cohen. To receive updates on this case from Jewish Women International, click here.