Hunter Biden’s hopes of getting his conviction regarding his gun charges overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court were crushed Friday as the justices upheld restrictions to the Second Amendment, legal analyst Jonathan Turley said.
The court ruled 8-1 to uphold a federal law restricting individuals convicted of domestic violence from possessing a firearm in the case, United States v. Rahimi. Hunter Biden, who a jury convicted of three counts of illegally purchasing a firearm, lost his hopes of getting his conviction overturned, as his legal team planned to argue the prohibition of drug users from owning guns is a violation of the Second Amendment. (Click HERE to sign up for the Daily Caller’s latest newsletter, Mr. Right’s weekly)
Turley said the court’s Friday upholding of Second Amendment restrictions is a huge loss for the president’s son.
“Hunter Biden just lost a Hail Mary toss,” he said. “The court voted 8-1 to uphold the case in allowing second amendment rights to be limited.”
…Hunter Biden just lost a Hail Mary toss. The court voted 8-1 to uphold the case in allowing second amendment rights to be limited
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) June 21, 2024
Chief Justice Roberts argued the prohibition of individuals threatening physical violence from owning a firearm is consistent with the tradition of the nation’s laws regarding the matter.
“When a restraining order contains a finding that an individual poses a credible threat to the physical safety of an intimate partner, that individual may—consistent with the Second Amendment—be banned from possessing firearms while the order is in effect,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority ruling. “Since the founding, our Nation’s firearm laws have included provisions preventing individuals who threaten physical harm to others from misusing firearms. As applied to the facts of this case, Section 922(g)(8) fits comfortably within this tradition.”
TOPSHOT – US President Joe Biden talks with his son Hunter Biden upon arrival at Delaware Air National Guard Base in New Castle, Delaware, on June 11, 2024, as he travels to Wilmington, Delaware. A jury found Hunter Biden guilty on June 11 on federal gun charges in a historic first criminal prosecution of the child of a sitting US president. The 54-year-old son of President Joe Biden was convicted on all three of the federal charges facing him, CNN and other US media reported. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
Special Counsel David Weiss charged Hunter Biden in September with three counts relating to the purchase of a Colt Cobra revolver in October 2018, where he is alleged to have knowingly bought the firearm while addicted to drugs and made false statements on his purchase form. (RELATED: ‘Much More Serious’: Jonathan Turley Says Hunter Biden’s Conviction Is Only Beginning Of Legal Woes)
The president’s son initially struck a deal with Weiss in July to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and enter a diversion agreement for a felony gun charge. The agreement imploded during a hearing overseen by District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika in July, who voiced concerns regarding an immunity provision included in the diversion agreement. Hunter Biden then changed his plea to not guilty.
WILMINGTON, DELAWARE – JUNE 06: Hunter Biden, the son of U.S. President Joe Biden, leaves the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 06, 2024 in Wilmington, Delaware. The trial for Hunter Biden’s felony gun charges continues today with additional witnesses. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
The younger Biden admitted to being addicted to drugs during the purchase of his gun in his memoir, Beautiful Things, and talked about his drug usage in text messages. Biden mentioned in one text message from October 14, 2018 that he slept “on a car smoking crack.”
The defense argued their client did not know he was an addict at the time. His daughter, Naomi Biden, testified that her father appeared to be the “clearest” he had ever been in the summer of 2018 since the death of his brother, Beau, three years before.
