Gura was brilliant during oral arguments. My only gripe with him was that he threw machine guns under the bus when John Roberts invited him to include them in his argument.
Gura should not have been surprised at the 5-4 ruling. The Marxist 4 have no interest in the Constitution. Their only concern is the advancement of the leftist agenda. I was very happy with the SC decision. But in a strange sort of way, perhaps a loss for our constitutional rights would have been better. Maybe it would have jump started the 2nd American revolution...an absolute necessity, sooner or later, if the nation is to survive as anything but a Marxist state.
I cringed when I heard that, but I understand what he did. A lot of times appeals judges set traps for overreaching on arguments. On the same point, Gura's client was Heller, and he had to do what was best for Heller first or he's violating his fidiciary duty. Bob Levy also wanted a narrow ruling, strictly on the gun ban itself.
I thought he did a good job. I thought Dellinger did a good job arguing the case for the bad guys. The only one I thought did a real poor job was Solicitor General's office and Clement. Everyone was ripping him apart.
You have that right.
You cannot defend a right when your argument defends limits on that right.
The gun haters are taking things like the machine gun laws and running with it. They see it as the right to bear arms side once again compromising.
The Heller case should have been argued on the fact that any gun control law infringes on the right to bear arms.