OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the law that bars domestic abusers from owning firearms could have a devastating effect on Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden.
The decision, handed down on Friday, was 8 – 1, with only Justice Clarence Thomas dissenting.
The decision ironically favored the Biden administration as his son’s defense would have benefited from the decision going against his dad.
“Our tradition of firearm regulation allows the government to disarm individuals who present a credible threat to the physical safety of others,” Chief Justice John Roberts said.
But Fox News legal analyst Jonathan Turley said that while the decision is a victory for the Biden administration it is a defeat for his son Hunter.
“On Friday, Hunter Biden may have lost the greatest Hail Mary pass in history. When Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach threw his famous winning touchdown pass to wide receiver Drew Pearson in 1975, he later explained. ‘I closed my eyes and said a Hail Mary.’ For Hunter, the pass to the Supreme Court roughly 50 years later just missed in equally spectacular fashion,” he said in a piece for Fox News.
“Hunter and his legal team were counting on the Court striking down the federal gun law at issue in the case of United States v. Rahimi. Hunter was just convicted by a unanimous jury in Delaware for false statements on a gun form and possession of a firearm as a drug addict. He has been arguing against the position of his father’s administration and adopting the same argument of the National Rifle Association (NRA) in challenging the constitutionality of the law,” the analyst said.
“The Supreme Court just voted 8-1 that the law is indeed constitutional and that a court can temporarily deprive citizens of the right to possess weapons for the protection of others. The sole dissenter was Justice Clarence Thomas,” he said.
After explaining the particulars of the case, he went on to explain what it means.
“The Court found the federal statutes imposing a reasonable temporary limitation on this right. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote that ‘an individual found by a court to pose a credible threat to the physical safety of another may be temporarily disarmed consistent with the Second Amendment,’” he said.
“The key is the temporary qualification. The Court is only saying that a court can make reasonable decisions based on such a record to protect others from allegedly violent defendants,” the analyst said.
He then explained how the decision affects Hunter Biden.
“While the result in Washington was not as bad as the unanimous decision in Delaware, it may well have sealed his fate on appeal. U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika did not leave him much for appeal in overseeing a fair and textbook trial,” the legal analyst said.
“The Biden legal team had been counting on Hail Mary passes since a Special Counsel was appointed. It almost worked. Special Counsel David Weiss seemed to work hard to avoid any felony charges against the president’s son,” he said.
“The Justice Department not only allowed the statute of limitations to run on major crimes, but sought to finalize an obscene plea agreement with no jail time for Hunter. In the hearing to accept the plea, Judge Noreika decided to ask a couple of cursory questions of the prosecutor, particularly about a sweeping immunity provision covering any and all crimes committed by Hunter. The prosecutor admitted that he had never seen an agreement this generous for a defendant,” he said.
“The plea fell apart and the Biden team seemed unwilling to accept anything but a single throw victory. They told the prosecutor in court ‘just rip it up.’
“The Biden legal team then blundered in taking the case to trial with a jury nullification strategy. Some of us wrote that Hunter needed to plead guilty to avoid jail time. Instead, they hoped that a Delaware jury in Bidentown could never convict a Biden. They were wrong,” he said.