GIFFORDS Urges Supreme Court to Protect Women from Domestic Abuse

Washington DC — Today, GIFFORDS Law Center, the legal arm of the gun violence prevention group GIFFORDS, filed an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court, urging them to overturn the Fifth Circuit’s decision in United States v. Rahimi. The Rahimi decision relied on the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision last year and struck down the federal law that prohibits people subject to domestic violence restraining orders from possessing guns.  GIFFORDS Law Center urges the Supreme Court to consider the harms to democracy when women are oppressed in applying Bruen. The brief, which was filed on GIFFORDS Law Center’s behalf by Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, can be found here. 

“It should be obvious that people subject to domestic violence restraining orders should not have a gun. But radical judges on the Fifth Circuit ruled that abusive partners’ rights take precedence over women and children’s lives. The Supreme Court must correct this grave misstep. 

“Firearms in the hands of people who have a history of domestic violence are tools of death—to intimate partners, children, and the broader community. Even when not used to kill, guns are often used to threaten, control, and oppress, preventing victims from enjoying full participation in civic life. Data shows that women are the primary victims of domestic violence, and are too often prevented from speaking out, voting, or engaging with their community. 

“The Supreme Court must look to these harms to inform the Second Amendment’s historical inquiry and to properly contextualize that history in the dramatic societal changes—including the 19th Amendment—that have improved our society since this country’s founding.”

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