Washington DC - The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a federal law prohibiting a person subject to a domestic violence restraining order from possessing a firearm.

"When an individual has been found by a court to pose a credible threat to the physical safety of another, that individual may be temporarily disarmed consistent with the Second Amendment," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the 8-1 opinion.

The case was the first involving gun rights to come before the court, where conservatives hold a 6-3 majority, since a major ruling it issued last year loosening gun restrictions.

In last year's decision, the nation's highest court said it would authorize only "reasonable" exceptions to the Second Amendment right to bear arms and would rely on historical precedents when it comes to regulating firearms.

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The ruling left lower courts struggling to determine whether gun restrictions before them were consistent with "the history and traditions" of firearms regulation in the US in the late 18th to the 19th century.

On the basis of that decision, an ultraconservative appeals court ruled in March that a federal law banning gun ownership by people with domestic violence restraining orders was unconstitutional for lack of historical precedent.

Roberts wrote that "some courts have misunderstood the methodology of our recent Second Amendment cases. These precedents were not meant to suggest a law trapped in amber."