Justice Department asks SCOTUS to uphold gun ban on people with domestic violence restraining orders

The Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court decision that said the federal law prohibiting people with domestic violence restraining orders from owning firearms is unconstitutional. 

The Biden administration said in a filing Friday that it is requesting for the Supreme Court to hear the case on a "highly expedited schedule" due to the "significant disruptive consequences" of the Fifth Circuit Court's ruling in February that declared the ban unconstitutional.

"Tens of millions of Americans 'will, in the course of their lifetimes, be the victims of intimate-partner abuse,'" the Justice Department wrote in the appeal. "And the presence of a gun in a house with a domestic abuser increases the risk of homicide sixfold."

The Fifth Circuit Court's decision only applies to Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, but critics are concerned about the rulings' national implications.

The government argued in Friday's filing that "contrary to the Fifth Circuit's view, the Second Amendment allows the government to disarm dangerous individuals, including those subject to domestic-violence restraining orders."