(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday upheld a longstanding federal ban on firearms for people under domestic violence restraining orders.
The 8-1 opinion was authored by Chief Justice John Roberts. Justice Clarence Thomas was the lone dissenter.
“When a restraining order contains a finding that an individual poses a credible threat to the physical safety of an intimate partner, that individual may—consistent with the Second Amendment—be banned from possessing firearms while the order is in effect,” Roberts wrote. “Since the founding, our Nation’s firearm laws have included provisions preventing individuals who threaten physical harm to others from misusing firearms.”
The ban, Roberts concluded, “fits comfortably within this tradition.”
U.S. v. Rahimi centered on a dispute over a 1994 federal statute that requires domestic violence restraining orders (DVROs) issued by federal and state judges to be reported to the national background check system, and thus serve as a basis to deny a gun sale.
The law has blocked more than 77,000 attempted firearm purchases by people under DVROs since 1994, according to the FBI.
Challenging the law was Zackey Rahimi, a Texas drug dealer with a history of domestic violence, who argued the Second Amendment guarantees his right to possess a gun.
The case marked a major test for the court since its controversial 2022 decision New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen that expanded individual gun rights and created a new framework for evaluating gun regulations saying only those with ties to the nation’s founding history and tradition can be constitutional.
The Bruen decision triggered a flood of challenges to gun safety laws on claims they don’t have a historical parallel and has become a source of confusion for judges who have struggled to apply the new rule consistently.
Roberts, seeming to acknowledge a course correction, 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.”
Justice Amy Coney Barrett in a concurring opinion wrote that a “wider lens” on history is essential when interpreting gun laws: “Historical regulations reveal a principle, not a mold,” she wrote.
Thomas, who authored the Bruen opinion, wrote in his dissent that “not a single historical regulation justifies the statute at issue.”
“Yet, in the interest of ensuring the Government can regulate one subset of society, today’s decision puts at risk the Second Amendment rights of many more,” Thomas wrote.
The National Rifle Association, which had supported Rahimi’s challenge to the law, expressed disappointment in the ruling but emphasized its limited scope.
“The Supreme Court’s narrow opinion offers no endorsement of red flag laws or of the dozens of other unconstitutional laws that the NRA is challenging across the country that burden the right of peaceable Americans to keep and bear arms,” said NRA Institute for Legislative Action executive director Randy Kozuch in a statement on X. “This decision holds only that an individual who poses a clear threat of violence may be temporarily disarmed after a judicial finding of dangerousness.”
The court’s ruling on Friday comes at a time when firearms are a leading factor in intimate partner violence nationwide. So far this year, there have been 952 domestic violence murders involving guns, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
“They listened. They listened to survivors, they listened to us,” said La’Shea Cretian, a 45-year-old mother of two who was shot five times by her ex-boyfriend and survived, praising the Court’s decision. “Because there’s not a day, a minute, or a second that we don’t think about it and we don’t feel the pain… but we have to continue to go on in spite of it all.”
More than 12 million American adults are victims of domestic abuse every year; when a gun is involved, it’s 5 times more likely someone will die, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers.
“We know that firearms make domestic abuse situations significantly more deadly, and firearms’ effects on women’s safety is a crisis,” said former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who founded a gun safety group after being shot in 2011. “This ruling is a small step in the fight to stop violence against women.”
“Our country has stood at a tipping point, with the safety of survivors of domestic violence on the line. But today, we took a step toward protecting millions from their abusers,” Janet Carter, the senior director of issues and appeals at Everytown Law, part of Everytown for Gun Safety, said in a statement.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Supreme Court reaffirmed the Justice Department’s view the federal firearm ban for domestic abusers is a “commonsense prohibition” consistent with the Second Amendment.
“The Justice Department will continue to enforce this important statute, which for nearly 30 years has helped to protect victims and survivors of domestic violence from their abusers,” Garland said.
Travis Scott is making light of his recent arrest for intoxication and trespassing, all while being charitable. Now being sold on his website are $35 T-shirts with a picture of his mugshot over the words “It’s Miami,” which is what he told police after he admitted he’d been drinking alcohol. Five dollars from each sale will benefit his Cactus Jack Foundation.
A$AP Rocky‘s fourth studio album, Don’t Be Dumb, finally has a release date: Aug. 30. He is said to have announced the date after teasing clips toward the end of the AWGE “American Sabotage” show during Paris Fashion Week. Links to presave the album and shop for merch from the American Sabotage collection were shared.
Snoop Dogg is praising Kendrick Lamar for uniting people at his Pop Out concert Wednesday. “Sending a big shout-out to K. Dot and all the homies from the West that stood together unified, organized in peace [and] love,” Snoop said. “That was fun to watch. Beautiful to see all my peoples come together… K. Dot, you are the King of the West. That’s the kind of s*** kings do, we unite.”
Many have noticed Sean “Diddy” Combs has wiped his Instagram clean amid the sexual assault allegations against him. His posts on the social platform X are still up, with a pinned statement from December 2023 in which he claimed people tried to “assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy.”
Cheers to another New Music Friday! Here’s some of the latest to hit the culture:
Kehlani‘s Crash is out now, featuring 13 tracks she thought would be great to tour. “A crash, in any form, is the peak height of the moment,” she says of her new project. It finds her “at my most free, most fun, most loud, most fueled, so far.”
Ice Spice drew comparisons to Nicki Minaj when she posted a teaser of “Phat Butt,” but now the song is out with a new video. “Rap b**** on the pop chart/ toasting b****** like pop tarts,” she raps. “Fat butt and a back tatt /and I been bad like Mike Jack.”
6lack reflects on his journey as a man and in the music industry on his new single, “FTRG” (F*** The Rap Game)”. It was released alongside a music video that “brings to life the many sentiments at play in this song.”
GloRilla‘s “TGIF” is finally here. Among the most memorable lyrics is “It’s 7pm Friday, it’s 95 degrees…I ain’t got no n**** and no n**** ain’t got me,” which is already viral on TikTok.
The new song and video from Jaden, “Roses,” is “about young love and healing.” He says it’s “a Therapy Session set to the key of Bb Major and at the tempo of 165 Bpm.”
Rema teams with fellow Nigerian Shalipoppi for “Benin Boys,” a tribute to their native Benin City. The video captures the city’s landmarks.
Capella Grey wants fans to Vibe Responsibly, according to his debut album, which was three years in the making. It features Caribbean, R&B and New York vibes.
It’s been three years since fans heard from G-Eazy, but he’s back with Freak Show, featuring “Love You Forever,” a song dedicated to his late mother, Suzanne Olmsted.
If there are two things Saweetie is known for outside of her music and beauty, it’s her food concoctions and business acumen. Both are displayed in her latest venture, a partnership with The Boiling Crab and Postmates. Per the deal, she’s bringing a variety of seafood feasts inspired by her food combos to her fans. The Hot Mess, The Bigger Hot Mess and The Biggest Hot Mess — all of which include snow crab, shrimp, corn, andouille sausage and fries — are now available at The Boiling Crab through July 7, with Postmates exclusively delivering from participating locations.
Speaking to People, Saweetie says she got her food concoctions, which include oysters in honey barbecue sauce, from her father.
“Honestly, I get a lot of the concoctions from my dad because, as a young dad, he would make me spreads,” Saweetie says. “He would make me these cool ‘Scooby-Doo’ sandwiches with a whole bunch of chips, fries, however he wanted to make it.”
“But I’ve always just had a love for concoctions and for tasting new foods. I’m a really big foodie,” she adds. It’s why she was open to the collab: It’s something she already enjoys doing.
“At this point in my career, I’m not doing things for financial benefit. I’m doing things out of passion,” Saweetie says. “It’s always a special moment when you’re able to do business with people who you share a common interest [with]; in this case, it’s seafood.”
“The fact that it’s dropping the day of Cancer season, and I’m a Cancer (my sign is a crab), it just feels so aligned and so in sync with everything that’s going on for me right now,” she tells People, “especially with just having new music out.”
When Moneybagg Yo was working on his Speak Now album, his goal was to “deliver a body of work for my day-one fanbase who been rocking with me since Federal 3x.”
The album features melodic tunes like “Drunk Off U” with Chris Brown and the Morgan Wallen-assisted “Whiskey Whiskey,” but Moneybagg says he’d been experimenting with his singing voice long before he collaborated with either artist.
“I got 80 of those type of songs before even Chris [Brown] got on it,” he tells Billboard. “I was experimenting and playing with the craft and the talent. It came out good and I put Chris on it. I got one called ‘I Feel It,’ and the Morgan Wallen situation.”
Of the Morgan collab, he says it was two to three years in the making, adding it came together because Morgan’s a fan of his work.
“He’s actually a big fan of me. We been locked in for like two or three years,” the rapper says. “We had the song when we first locked in off the rip. I had it for like a year and a half, or two years, and he’s been on me about putting it out. … The perfect time is now.”
Bagg notes that he’s in the part of his career where he’s “really about enjoying what I’m doing and expanding at the same time” because he feels he has “nothing else to prove.”
“I got all these plaques, I got success,” he says. “Just basically coming off a two-year break. I’m just letting them know I really do this. Don’t play.”
There are some songs that are best untouched, and Monica once thought “The Boy Is Mine” was one of them. That is, until she heard the remixAriana Grande and producer Max Martin had put together.
“I’ve always said that the song should not be touched, right? And I said that because I felt that it did not need to be redone in the idea of, let’s say, actually doing it the exact way that it was,” Monica explains to ET. “But Ariana and [producer] Max Martin — as soon as I heard this version, I fell in love with it.”
Working and speaking with Ariana, Monica says, also helped in bringing the collaboration to fruition.
“Everything has been directly from her chest and, for me, authenticity, humility, all of those things are key,” Monica says. She adds that it was Ariana’s enthusiasm that ultimately convinced her to do the song.
Ariana’s “The Boy Is Mine (Remix)” is now out, also featuring one-half of the original hit, Brandy. Though the two had put rumors of a feud to rest during their Verzuz battle in 2020, Monica says the new collab further helped heal their relationship, which had briefly given in to the chatter of a beef and became real.
“The process of the new collaboration did a lot of closing the gaps…,” Monica said. “It made it a lot easier just to talk,” she continued, adding she and Brandy have talked more recently than they have in “the last two decades.”
The singer didn’t rule out a future Brandy/Monica collab, saying, “There is a chance, there is for sure.”
Until then, her wish is for fans to “have fun to this record because it is really the rebirth of ‘The Boy Is Mine’ in such a special way.”
