Oichin bolshoi news this week. SCOTUS has granted cert on Heller (f/k/a Parker). This is very big news because the case puts squarely at issue whether the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right of the people (like the others in the Bill of Rights), or whether our revolutionary forefathers sought to protect for all eternity the right of government militias to have weapons (gee, what a revolutionary concept!). The "collective rights" theory only came into vogue in the 1970s, and to the extent we discussed the Second Amendment at all in my Hastings conlaw class, it was the only theory given much credence. A new generation has discovered a wealth of evidence in favor of the individual rights view (as documented in Emerson and Parker), and the meaning of the Second Amendment is plain enough to most folk. Seriously, do we even need the Supreme Court to tell us its views on this? I certainly don't. I know what the Constitution says, I love my country, and so do you. Can the court maintain its legitimacy if it rejects the great weight of scholarship, history, common sense and current favor supporting the individual rights view? Even a mediocre decision will de-legitimize the court. The court must unequivocally uphold the Constitution, or the justices face a very real threat of impeachment. Failing to protect helpless unborn and unseen Americans is one thing, but curtailing the life-right of mature voting Americans to defend themselves is quite another issue of political consequence. Armed Americans will not give up their guns (remember New Orleans!) and they will do everything possible to avoid having to use them, so they will vote and canvass and educate with effect. The Supreme Court knows this, and that's why they have not taken a squarely 2A case in 70 years. That cert was actually granted lends some confidence there will be at least a 5-4 decision in favor of the Second Amendment, but that is not good enough! The justices must speak with unanimity in support of the Constitution, or individual dissenting justices must face impeachment, regardless of the impeachment's outcome. The impeachment process will serve to educate Americans further on their right of self-defense, and there is ample grassroot support for maintaining impeachment against even minority dissenters on this most important right. The Constitution is clear enough.
Link: Supreme Court Will Hear D.C. Guns Case.
The main issue before the justices is whether the Second Amendment of the Constitution protects an individual's right to own guns or instead merely sets forth the collective right of states to maintain militias. The former interpretation would permit fewer restrictions on gun ownership.
Hero Carl Brown Jr. uses Heimlich Maneuver to save fellow third grader from choking:
