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To: Ken H
But wasn't Justice Thomas saying that case law had it wrong by suggesting there is a personal RKBA?

Not at all, because as I pointed out, there are two separate issues:

Issue #1: How the right is defined by the Constitution.

Issue #2: Who is prohibited by the Constitution from violating it.

Thomas was commenting on Issue #1. He had nothing to say in regard to Issue #2.

Do you think the proper reading of the Constitution means that the individual RKBA shall not be infringed by state and local governments, as well as federal?

No, the amendment applies to the federal government alone. There's ample evidence that that was the intent.

583 posted on 08/08/2004 11:51:09 AM PDT by inquest (Judges are given the power to decide cases, not to decide law)
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To: inquest
But wasn't Justice Thomas saying that case law had it wrong by suggesting there is a personal RKBA?

Not at all, because as I pointed out, there are two separate issues:

Issue #1: How the right is defined by the Constitution.

Issue #2: Who is prohibited by the Constitution from violating it.

Thomas was commenting on Issue #1. He had nothing to say in regard to Issue #2.

Justice Thomas: "[P]erhaps, at some future date, this Court will have the opportunity to determine whether Justice Story was correct when he wrote that the right to keep and bear arms 'has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic."'

Here is Justice Story's quote: "The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic;"

If Justice Thomas considers the RKBA the key liberty of a republic, then why would he think that the States could violate it and still remain republics? It is his job to guarantee that States have republican governments.

599 posted on 08/08/2004 12:45:24 PM PDT by Ken H
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