Supreme Court Strikes Down DC Gun Ban!
Written by Sam on June 26th, 2008Woohoo!! This is a win for all Americans today, Republican and Democrat, conservative and liberal. The Second Amendment does indeed guarantee an individual right to own a gun.
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Washington D.C.’s sweeping ban on handguns is unconstitutional.
The justices voted 5-4 against the ban with Justice Antonin Scalia writing the opinion for the majority.
At issue in District of Columbia v. Heller was whether the city’s ban violated the Second Amendment right to “keep and bear arms” by preventing individuals — as opposed to state militias — from having guns in their homes.
District of Columbia officials argued they had the responsibility to impose “reasonable” weapons restrictions to reduce violent crime, but several Washingtonians challenged the 32-year-old law. Some said they had been constant victims of crimes and needed guns for protection.
The decision being a 5 to 4 split though does bother me. It shouldn’t have been that close. We were one judge away from having the Second Amendment being totally gutted. They should have been unanimous on this. Anyone can clearly see what the intention of the Second Amendment was. It’s not difficult.
Update: I found some of the opinions of the dissenting justices. Get a load of this crap:
In a dissent he summarized from the bench, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that the majority “would have us believe that over 200 years ago, the Framers made a choice to limit the tools available to elected officials wishing to regulate civilian uses of weapons.”
He said such evidence “is nowhere to be found.”
Justice Stephen Breyer wrote a separate dissent in which he said, “In my view, there simply is no untouchable constitutional right guaranteed by the Second Amendment to keep loaded handguns in the house in crime-ridden urban areas.”
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Excellent ruling out of the Court. No other way of putting it.
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This is great news.
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I was sweating this one.
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This is good news, to be sure.
But I am bothered that at least four Supreme Court justices are complete and utter morons, while a fifth, Anthony Kennedy, appears to take stupid pills every couple of days. Thankfully, he didn’t take them when he concurred with the majority on this case.
As much I dread bringing the “To McCain or Not to McCain” argument to this thread, I must ask our anti-McCain folks:
Given that there will likely be at least one and possibly two Supreme Court vacancies during the next four years;
and given that there at least a chance, perhaps better than average, that McCain will nominate Roberts-like justices;
and given that there isn’t a chance in hell that Obama will nominate anyone to the right of Trotsky to the bench;
is it worth it to hold our nose and vote for McCain just to keep the Supreme Court from slipping away?
I’m not advocating any position. I’d simply like your thoughts.
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Good decision by the court. It’s certainly better then their child rapist death penalty decision.
To answer the McCain question: I believe McCain will appoint strict constitutionalists to the bench. No question there! Although I don’t agree with McCain on a number of issues I do believe he is the only candidate that ran (other then Ron Paul) who truly puts the country ahead of his party. The last one who did that was Reagan and before him Eisenhower.
McCain may not float everyone’s boat but he is no fool and has been quite underrated. I just wish a few of his strategy people were a little more astute.
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I wish we could depend on Robert’s like justices from McCain but I fear we will get at best a Kennedy a moderate, but at worst a Stevens or a Souter who are are way out in left field. All were appointed by Republicans. 7 out of the 9 justices are Republican appointees but only 4 are conservative, 1 is a moderate at best, and 2 are liberal. Can we really trust McCain on this issue? Ford, Reagan, GWH Bush dropped the ball.
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How would McCain get another Scalia through a Democrat controlled Senate anyway?
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Yeah, but i think no matter how much you like, or dislike McCain. Can you imagine the type of yuppie, far left justices Obama would put in.
At least with McCain choosing justices there is a chance.
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McCain’s true views on Roe v. Wade are somewhere to be found in this article. I don’t know where exactly because McCain has said completely contradictory things, but I’m sure his real views are somewhere in here. Suffice it to say that we have no reason to think McCain will appoint more Justices in the Roberts/Alito mold. (To say nothing of the way Roberts and Alito have voted on McCain’s campaign-finance law, both yesterday–in a decision almost no one is talking about–and last year.) http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_199909/ai_n8855062
And kudos to the Court for the Heller decision.
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Here’s George Will on this McCain/Obama issue (and I’d pay particular attention to the last paragraph): http://www.townhall.com/columnists/GeorgeWill/2008/06/27/shining_a_supreme_light_on_the_candidates
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McCain has been all over the map on abortion over the years. Fortunately for him, Obama has been so very (very) consistent on the issue that McCain’s inconstancy won’t hurt him much with pro-lifers.
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If you’re right, Barbara, pro-lifers will be kicking themselves when McCain nominates more Souters and is followed in the White House by a Democrat in 2013 or 2017. Getting McCain elected this year to try to get Roe overturned is going to be one hell of a bad gamble. I really wish I could just force myself to become pro-choice so I won’t be disappointed when I see what pro-lifers have wrought by supporting McCain.
It’s 1976 all over again.
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Yeah, it is similar to 1976 in a way. I hope that means that 2012 will be just like 1980.
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McCain is doing an excellent job of leading the social conservatives to believe he’ll nominate the Justices they’re hoping for, when it’s clear he intends no such thing.
Did you listen to Dobson’s broadcast last week? It got a lot of publicity because of his remarks about Obama, but the first ten minutes and the tail end were actually about McCain and the Republicans. He said it’s time for Christians (and, by extension, social conservatives) to wake up and realize that most of the GOP is simply using evangelicals to get into office, then doing whatever the hell they want when they get there. He said if the party doesn’t start paying the piper, he’s going to recommend that his troops pull out of the party. I think that’s an interesting threat. Where does he propose they go? Third party?
I do think there are many parallels between 1976-80 US, and the US we see now. I see the next presidency as doomed to difficulty and inevitable popular failure, which opens the door for a 1980 Reaganesque figure to emerge in 2012.
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I don’t listen to Dobson, no. But I’m glad he lashed out at the GOP for using, abusing, and reusing Christians–the GOP treats them worse than the Democrats treat blacks. At least the Democrats listen to black people, sometimes. (Though it must be added that the Democrats’ policies are no good at all for black people.) As for where Dobson thinks the faithful will go, I have no idea. But going third-party and just staying home are the two only ways to make the threat credible–because if you keep voting Republican no matter how far left the Republicans turn, it just shows the Republicans that they can move as far to the left as they want and never pay a price.
I wholeheartedly endorse going third-party, whether for Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party or Bob Barr of the Libertarian Party. I’m definitely voting third-party this year. I don’t insist that a candidate agree with me on everything (heaven knows Baldwin and Barr don’t), but McCain disagrees with me on the issues I care most about, and flip-flops wildly on too many other issues. The man has left no stone unthrown at conservatives. So I intend to be a maverick and not vote Republican this year, or any other year in which the GOP puts a RiNO on the ticket.
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Well, Alan, you’re preaching to the choir as far as I’m concerned. I won’t cast a vote for McCain.
But at the same time, it seems like a tall order for Dobson to try to convince Christians to withdraw from the GOP. Sure they could form their own party around Huckabee, but they wouldn’t have enough numbers to win office. It’d be about as effective nationally as the Dixiecrat Party was.