Chief Justice John Roberts emphasized in his majority opinion that the justices were only greenlighting taking guns away from people who had first been deemed by a judge to pose a danger to others.
Roberts bent over backward to stay silent on other scenarios not involving judicial findings of dangerousness.
“[W]e reject the Government’s contention that Rahimi may be disarmed simply because he is not ‘responsible,’” Roberts wrote. “‘Responsible’ is a vague term. It is unclear what such a rule would entail.”
They narrowly defined the situation where it’s ok to take someones gun rights away. It specifically only applies when a court decides the person is a danger to another. Someone being irresponsible (ie drug user), isn’t a good enough reason to take their right to have a gun.
So on Hunter’s appeals they can point to that. And if the Supreme Court eventually hears the case, they set them selves up to confirm he should have been allowed a gun regardless of any drug use at the time.
Would this ruling also apply to non-violent felons? A blanket gun ban due to having a felony looks unconstitutional. Why should someone convicted of fraud have their right to defend themselves taken? It also looks like an easy tool to use to disarm people the government don’t like.
I would think so.
It’s hard to say really, because they didn’t explicitly state “this is the only way to take someone’s gun”. But, it is a pretty straight forward interpretation of what they did say.
So yah, I would guess that they’d let Trump keep his gun also. [At the risk of reading into your question a bit.]
They narrowly defined the situation where it’s ok to take someones gun rights away. It specifically only applies when a court decides the person is a danger to another. Someone being irresponsible (ie drug user), isn’t a good enough reason to take their right to have a gun.
So on Hunter’s appeals they can point to that. And if the Supreme Court eventually hears the case, they set them selves up to confirm he should have been allowed a gun regardless of any drug use at the time.
Would this ruling also apply to non-violent felons? A blanket gun ban due to having a felony looks unconstitutional. Why should someone convicted of fraud have their right to defend themselves taken? It also looks like an easy tool to use to disarm people the government don’t like.
I would think so.
It’s hard to say really, because they didn’t explicitly state “this is the only way to take someone’s gun”. But, it is a pretty straight forward interpretation of what they did say.
So yah, I would guess that they’d let Trump keep his gun also. [At the risk of reading into your question a bit.]