By: Kayleigh Hamilton
This was an extremely controversial move by Clarence Thomas.
He knows that Joe Biden and the gun control lobby would hate his decision.
But he went out on a limb for the Second Amendment and made one crucial judgment.
When the Supreme Court handed down the Rahimi decision, ruling that alleged domestic abusers could have their gun rights taken away, few were surprised.
After all, the facts behind the case were very ugly. Regardless of the legal principles involved, it would have been a PR disaster for the Supreme Court to side with someone like Zackey Rahimi.
Unfortunately, PR plays too big of a role in court cases these days. The Constitution is supposed to exist to protect the most difficult cases, but that’s not what is happening in reality.
However, Clarence Thomas was not afraid to take a stand for what is right.
Thomas has proven time and time again that he doesn’t care how he is perceived, he is going to act on his principles.
His dissenting opinion in the Rahimi case sent shockwaves through D.C. and infuriated the gun control lobby.
According to Bearing Arms, “Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for a minority of one, held that the government failed to show any historical statute or tradition that was materially similar to the modern prohibition on gun possession for those subject to a domestic violence restraining order. While Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, cited surety laws and statutes against ‘affray,’ Thomas says those laws are substantially different from Section 922(g)(8) and don’t pass the ‘history, text, and tradition’ test spelled out in Bruen.”
Roberts surely wasn’t happy to see one of his justices go out on a limb like this, as Roberts is very keenly aware of the public perception of the Court.
He wants the Supreme Court’s decisions to conform to the expectations of the media. But that’s not what Thomas was interested in.
The article continues, “Thomas did acknowledge and agree with the majority’s rejection of the DOJ’s contention that the Second Amendment can only be exercised by ‘responsible’ citizens, but warned that today’s decision will weaken the history, text, and tradition test.”
“If anything, the majority opinion in Rahimi is likely going to lead lower court judges to rev up their activism. Gorsuch is arguing that today’s decision leaves many questions unanswered, but Thomas contends that even if that is the case, Rahimi is going to make it much easier to rule against gun owners in the future.”
The Rahimi decision could be a disastrous one for gun rights, but it is not for lack of trying on the part of Clarence Thomas, who once again showed courage in taking a difficult stand on an issue.
Thomas sees danger ahead in the future, and he knows that the decision the Supreme Court just made could unravel gun rights in America.
He did everything he could to prevent that from happening, and for that gun owners should be grateful, even if the rest of the Court didn’t share his courage.