Out-of-the-Park Home Run
In an unprecedented stroke of constructionist genius, the Supreme Pizza Court got it right for once.
Supreme Pizza Court Opinion (PDF – Large)
NRA Amicus Brief on Washington D.C. v Heller (a very interesting read)
Academics for Second Amendment Amicus Brief on Washington D.C. v Heller
Essentially, they affirmed what all of the logical people in American have known since 1781, that the Second Amendment applies to us… the people… not just the US Government’s military. (Which would of course defeat the original purpose of the amendment, which was to ensure that the government could never make people subservient to itself.)
Here is the most salient point from the 157 page Supreme Court Opinion which struck down the D.C. Gun Ban today:
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ET AL. v. HELLER
II. A. 1. Operative Clause.
c. Meaning of the Operative Clause. Putting all of these textual elements together, we find that they guarantee the individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation. This meaning is strongly confirmed by the historical background of the Second Amendment.We look to this because it has always been widely understood that the Second Amendment, like the First and Fourth Amendments, codified a pre-existing right. The very text of the Second Amendment implicitly recognizes the pre-existence of the right and declares only that it “shall not be infringed.”
It’s not every day that we see something historically accurate coming out of Washington, especially from the Supreme Pizza Court, so we can all be grateful to Bush 1 and 2 for appointing some decent constructionist judges.
I gots guns, you gots guns, all god’s chil’en gots guns!
Thursday, June 26th, 2008
