Posted on 02/06/2008 5:22:32 PM PST by Bob Leibowitz
D. C. vs. Heller has been called the most significant constitutional case of the year. It's easily that. It is also the most important Second Amendment case ever. If decided incorrectly, it may well over time affect our understandings of our rights under each of the others of the first ten amendments.
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With citations, the brief runs for 82 pages. With a single exception, it is powerful and convincing. Unlike the D.C. brief, there is little evidence of authorship by committee.
Its bedrock principle is The Second Amendment Protects An Individual Right to Keep Ordinary Firearms, Unrelated to Government Military Service, which it supports with three principles:
* Preambles Cannot Negate Operative Text
* The Second Amendment's Plain Text Secures an Individual Right
* The Framers Secured an Individual Right to Keep and Bear Arms in Reaction to the British Colonial Experience
***
The conclusion:
Lots of shooting, lots of smoke, but I believe it is the good guys who are left standing.
(Excerpt) Read more at Canticle4Leibowitz.com ...
The Heller team takes on D.C., the American Bar Association, the Solicitor General and too many gun-grabbing groups to name.
The team does a superb job.
Ping for later. I’ve been waiting for these briefs to pour in.
BTTT!
UPDATE: 100 Members of Congress will file an amicus brief supporting Heller.
Would love to see whether McManiac signs on.
For that matter, someone should start asking all the candidates where they stand on Heller...
After Kelo, I have little confidence in the SCOTUS arriving at the obvious decision.
The only one I know of is Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri. The others will be apparent on Monday, when the amici briefs in support of Heller will be filed.
Meanwhile, very experience lawyers are saying that the Heller brief will be taught in schools for years to come, as an example of a terrific brief.
I found it to be a historical tour with all the very best arguments in favor of the Second Amendment we know.
It will be a great example to law students of how to write for years to come.
Bang!
No. This overlooks the courts’ ever greater desire to create law rather than to interpret law. Esp. with the doddering Stevens and senile Ginsberg concerned abouit their “legacy” in their twilight years. I say Heller loses 5-4 or 6-3 with awful consequences.
Having read both, the Heller guys are clear, concise, and logical. The DC brief looks like it was written by a dyslexic 13 year old.
5-4, Heller wins.
By my reading of Miller a favorable decision in this case would compliment, not overturn Miller. I take it that had Miller been present and showed evidence that a short barreled shotgun was indeed a useful militia weapon, they would have affirmed his right to possess it.
As it should be...
It seems obvious. I read it that the Court was not at liberty to assume facts not in evidence.
Yep. Pretty much an early example of the Courts tossing out the “reasonable man standard” on the ash heap.
Well, I have my fingers crossed on this one...
BLOATing while I wait.
Good post! Thanks!
I can't tell you just how much I totally disagree with this statement! The ideal ruling would include a militia paradigm and standardize weapon types found in the TO&E of an army or USMC infantry rifle platoon. That would put belt fed and small indirect fire (like the M203) on the table but exclude INDIRECT fire like the 60mm, 80mm and 4.2 inch mortars. And YES I do understand that the letters of marque as described in the Constitution will afford Bill Gates the right to go out and acquire an aircraft carrier. Just as Teddy Roosevelt no doubt used it to set up and provision his mounted regiment for the Spanish American War and his infamous infantry & cavalry charge up Kettle Hill
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