The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down the D.C. gun ban, holding that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms (District of Columbia v. Heller). The Court's opinion is here.
The vote was 5-4, and of course, Justice Kennedy was the deciding vote for the majority, just like he was yesterday in the case striking down capital punishment for child rape (Kennedy v. Louisiana). In Kennedy, Justice Kennedy (no relation) joined with Justices Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer to produce a ruling that Senators John McCain and Barack Obama both roundly condemned. In Heller, Justice Kennedy joined with Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Thomas and Alito.
We can expect McCain to hail today's decision. It will be fascinating to see what position Obama takes. Given that he's into constitutional "change" (Obama flip-flopped on the constitutionality of capital punishment), perhaps Obama will agree that Americans have Second Amendment individual rights also. Please note: The postings of "G. Morris", written by John K. Bush and which end in 2016, stated his views as of the dates of posting and should not be understood as current assertions of his views. The postings, which have not been altered since they came to an end, remain on this blog to preserve the historical record. In 2017, Mr. Bush took a position that precludes further public political comments or endorsements. He will no longer be contributing to this blog.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment