>> The top constitutional law scholars were completely caught off guard when a third black man, Justice Clarence Thomas, reinvigorated the “privileges or immunities” of citizenship in McDonald v. City of Chicago two weeks ago.
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>I wasn’t surprised at all, and neither should anyone else have been who follows Justice Thomas’ opinions. The only thing that did surprise me is that Scalia did not agree with Thomas.
If I were a Supreme Court justice, my opinion would be that the Second Amendment is written in the passive voice; meaning it is the process of infringing [on the right to keep and bear arms] which is prohibited. Furthermore, as the amendment is regarding the process and not an actor [doing the infringement] it applies to State government, County/political-subdivisions-of-the-state, and all municipalities whatsoever.
The language of the second and fourteenth amendments are unambiguous and efforts to read words into or out of them violate every rule of constitutional construction.
The simple and correct action the USSC should have taken was to overturn the Slaughterhouse case and its progeny. Doing so would have eliminated hundreds of cases that will now be litigated because the USSC failed to do so in the McDonald case.