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June 28, 2010

SCOTUS Rules for Gun Rights (Updated with Opinion)

Richard Daley and Mike Bloomberg must be sharing a stroke:

In its second major ruling on gun rights in three years, the Supreme Court Monday extended the federally protected right to keep and bear arms to all 50 states. The decision will be hailed by gun rights advocates and comes over the opposition of gun control groups, the city of Chicago and four justices.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the five justice majority saying "the right to keep and bear arms must be regarded as a substantive guarantee, not a prohibition that could be ignored so long as the States legislated in an evenhanded manner."

The ruling builds upon the Court's 2008 decision in D.C. v. Heller that invalidated the handgun ban in the nation's capital. More importantly, that decision held that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms was a right the Founders specifically delegated to individuals. The justices affirmed that decision and extended its reach to the 50 states. Today's ruling also invalidates Chicago's handgun ban.

Update: MCDONALD ET AL. v. CITY OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS,ET AL. opinion (PDF, 214 pages).

The key point:

JUSTICE ALITO delivered the opinion of the Court with respect toParts I, II–A, II–B, II–D, III–A, and III–B, concluding that the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the Second Amendment right, recognized in Heller, to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defense.

Update: Over at Alan Colmes Liberaland, the first thoughtful left wing commenter opines:

I say every black man in America should own a gun and we should show up at the next tea baggers klan rally and see if they will have the same heart to call black people nini&&ers as they did when they call John Lewis a ni&&er

Bigoted New Yorker Ron Jackson would be surprised that the leader of the Tea Party in his city (as much as the Tea Party has leaders) is black, as are some of the armed protesters we've seen. Not that reality matters. It won't be intruding into the left's hate, no matter what the occasion.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at June 28, 2010 09:21 AM
Comments

The sound of exploding heads all across the nation will be heard today. Accompanied by the specious non-arguments of trolls accusing conservatives of hypocrisy, of course.

I am going to so enjoy reading the outcries of rage and anger from the idiotic left as they predict mass violence, dead children, civil war, cats mating with dogs, genocide, and global warming.

Posted by: iconoclast at June 28, 2010 09:49 AM

Now begins the fudging, the attempt by Chicago and every other anti-gun bastion in the nation to impose restrictions on gun ownership that come as close as humanly possible to an outright ban. For Chicago and other liberal redoubts, a long and expensive battle to deny to whatever degree possible a fundamental Constitutional right, funded with taxpayer monies, has begin. McDonald merely set the initial boundaries.

We should also keep in mind the importance of electing a conservative president some two years hence. Should the balance of the court tip away from honest interpretation of the Constitution and precedent and toward liberal orthodoxy, the Second Amendment would be almost immediately legislated into oblivion and union membership would become a universal and mandatory human right. Elections have consequences indeed.

Posted by: mikemcdaniel at June 28, 2010 11:06 AM

Per the Colms blog quote: "I say every black man in America should own a gun and we should show up at the next tea baggers klan rally and see if they will have the same heart to call black people nini&&ers as they did when they call John Lewis a ni&&er"

What a precious piece of deconstructive amusement. Most of the educated readers here are aware of the "gun-toting tea party radical" which the mainstream media cropped tightly to avoid exposing the race and affiliation of its bearer. When the broader image was shown, it was a black, anti-tea party member bearing it. What was the tea party multitude's reaction? Nothing. What was the media's? Farce.

And of course, we all know there was no such use of the N word against John Lewis, as numerous videos and audio recordings have shown. That John Lewis and other ilk such as the above quote's poster project racism into every interpretation they engage illustrates where the real racism resides.

That said, I welcome the application of racism to everything as that signifies we've become a truly post-racial society. When everything is racist, racism no longer has relevance and society can move onward without attention to this excessive, persistent and meaningless claim of useless difference. Outside of the plantation liberals who desire the continuation of racism in order to placate and control minorities, the majority of Americans realize that one's pigmentation composition has no bearing on one's character, ability, ethic, etc.

Posted by: Hatless Hessian at June 28, 2010 11:27 AM

Today is huge for American Citizens. I truly hope that even the Libs will appreciate on some reptilian level what has just occured, that even the rights that they hold sacred are even more protected today.

Posted by: Robert17 at June 28, 2010 11:38 AM

I suspect that the government will just ignore the amendment just like they have most every other aspect of the Constitution.

An interesting and relevant piece of history from Rush. The first major law restricting guns ownership was the Sullivan Act in New York. The problem was that Sullivan was a big time gangster and it is speculated (by Rush) that he pushed the law through to make his job easier. This seems to be the real reason for such laws.

To follow up with the racist remarks of the libs, I have asked my black friends and associates why they are against or for specfic rules, laws that don't have much logic to them or are distructive, the answer is that "you are for it" (meaning whites). This seems to be the liberal agenda. There is no middle ground. The only answer to an inability to compromise is violence. That is why I don't hold much hope for November.

Posted by: David at June 28, 2010 12:52 PM

Despite being somewhat challenged on the melatonin side, I am an African-American by virtue of the great gods of science who assure us that human beings began in Africa.

Posted by: Jerry in Detroit at June 28, 2010 12:54 PM

Haven't yet seen much on non-majority opinion[s].

I wonder if "5-4" is the same as in Heller which was actually ubabimous in deciding for individula vs collective roght? And even without seeing his opinion, I want Justice Stevens to shut up for once.

Anyhoo, even if the lower court rules against Chicago, Daley et al will just follow D.C. in passing so many regulations that actual chamge will be small. Today's release from VCP crows that only 900 handguns have been sold in D.C. despite Mi>Heller without noting there is effectively only one place you can buy one, and the guy who has a license to sell does not want to...

Posted by: John A at June 28, 2010 01:27 PM

If more city dwellers knew the background about Cruikshank,

Chief among those cases is United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U. S. 542 (1876).
There, the Court held that members of a white militia who had brutally murdered as many as 165 black Louisianians congregating outside a courthouse had not deprived the victims of their privileges as American citizens to peaceably assemble or to keep and bear arms.
-Thomas, concurring, but to overturn Cruikshank?

Maybe the city dwellers would not be so willing to put into office Democrats who then supported efforts to render them defenseless, and still do.

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Posted by: ltscneyy at June 30, 2010 01:06 AM