Legislators Will File Brief In McDonald v. Chicago Case (2nd Amendment Case)

NRA-ILA ^ | 10/09/09 | Staff writer

[epow]

As we reported in last week's Grassroots Alert, the U.S. Supreme Court will soon hear the landmark Second Amendment case of McDonald v. Chicago. The case will address the application of the Second Amendment to the states through either the Due Process clause or the Privileges or Immunities clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case has major implications for the legality of restrictive gun laws not only in Chicago, but also in other cities and the states across the nation. The decision to hear the case gives hope to Second Amendment advocates across America, that this fundamental freedom will be protected from infringement throughout the nation from impermissible regulation at all levels, state and local, as well as federal.

This week comes the news that U.S. Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.), are joining forces with U.S. Representatives Mark Souder (R-Ind.) and Mike Ross (D-Ark.), in filing a joint, pro-Second Amendment amicus curiae (Friend of the Court) brief before the Supreme Court in the McDonald v. Chicago case.

Last year, the historic case of District of Columbia v. Heller invalidated the District's ban on handguns. However, the Heller case applied only to federal enclaves, such as Washington, D.C. A favorable ruling in the McDonald case would ensure that the individual right affirmed in Heller also applied as against state and local regulation.

Commenting on the brief, Sen. Hutchison said, "With its landmark decision in D.C. v. Heller, the Supreme Court affirmed an individual's right to bear arms is a fundamental, Constitutionally-guaranteed liberty. The Second Amendment should protect all lawful gun owners, but some courts have not viewed this right as one protected from state infringement. I look forward to the Supreme Court's consideration of McDonald v. City of Chicago so this extremely important....

[epow]

Finally, Senator Hutchison makes a move to verify her credentials as a conservative. Maybe not her first move in that direction, but it's definitely a good move for her to help establish in every state's law as well as in federal law an inherent human right that the authors of the Constitution intended to guarantee to every American.

[epow]

Sen. Tester, who serves as Vice Chairman of the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus, said, "The Second Amendment guarantees gun rights for all law-abiding Americans, no matter where they live. I'm glad Republicans and Democrats are working together to tell the Supreme Court we expect it to stand up for our gun rights in this important case."

I wonder which Democrats are working together with Republicans to tell the Supreme Court to stand up for our gun rights. They must be a few of the blue-dog southerners who will have to have the approval of their gun-owning constituents next year in the state Congressional elections.

[Petruchio]

ping

[basil]

This will certainly test the “wise Latina”.

[budwiesest]

Liberals and most governments tend to be bullies- either you do it their way or you're in trouble (fines, prison, whatever). It is a top-down arrangement where citizens are treated much like children in a household.

The second ammendment is unique in that it reverses this relationship between the people and their government by allowing them something that 'shall not' be taken away (except in certain limited circumstances and even then, it's debatable).

It's as if parents are told their child will have a set of keys to the car and they can't do anything about it (provided it is necessary to the security of the state) unless the child goes about harming others with the car.(not the best example, but that's beside the point)

What such a 'right' does is simply ignore the wishes of the bully liberal, rendering them impotent, as well as their thuggish cousin- collective tyranny, ie. government.

Roe vs. Wade is a good example of bully liberalism being exerted over the states after abortion was found to exist in a document where it isn't easily ascertained and is dubious at best. Nonetheless, every state must allow the practice or face federal intervention (National Guard, bussing students, cut-off of highway funds, etc).

What the court has to do is restore this right, unfettered, which will in-turn restore the relationship between the people and their government.

It has to erase State-by-State infringements on the right to carry by U.S. citizens and all other infringements that currently exist (gun-free zones, etc.) if we are to adhere to the principles that insure our future as a nation built upon respect for the individual and the law.

Anything less will doom us to a future unlike that which was envisioned: a perfect union. Limiting the second ammendment for any reason is a fatal mistake and will become apparent over time. It's not 'if', but 'when'. Current events have me convinced that we're very close to 'when'.

[Joe Brower]

[basil]

ping

[M Kehoe]

The case will address the application of the Second Amendment to the states through either the Due Process clause or the Privileges or Immunities clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Does this make sense...

The case will address the application of the Fourteenth Amendment to the states through either the Keep and Bear Arms clause or the Can't Be Infringed clause of the Second Amendment?

The BoR applies to all the States. You can't opt in or out.

5.56mm

[philman_36]

Finally, Senator Hutchison makes a move to verify her credentials as a conservative.
A 90% rating by the ACU and she has to "make a move"?
She can make a move all she wants, but she can't shake her past.

Hutchison seeks to reframe conservatism issue as style, not substance
"Overall, she's very conservative," said John Gizzi, political editor at Human Events, a conservative magazine. "But she is pro-choice. She would never overturn Roe v. Wade."
He identified another factor that has fueled mistrust: In 1976, the senator and her husband backed President Gerald Ford against challenger and future GOP hero Ronald Reagan. Primary voters punished Ray Hutchison two years later when he lost a run for governor.
"The Texas breed of elephant has a long memory," Gizzi said. "She has never been able to shake that off."
DOH!

Yeah, yeah, The Dallas Morning News is a liberal rag.
It's the broken clock syndrome.

[blackie]

Good stuff!

Be Ever vigilant!

[RKV]

Prior to the 14th, the BOR limited only the Feds. Case law on that subject is very plain. That said, after the 14th the whole BOR certainly does apply to the states. Chief Justice Taney was very clear in Dredd Scott what the court found to be "Privileges or Immunities" of national citizenship.

"For if they [blacks] were so received, and entitled to the privileges and immunities of citizens, it would exempt them from the operation of the special laws and from the police [60 U.S. 393, 417] regulations which they considered to be necessary for their own safety. It would give to persons of the negro race, who were recognised as citizens in any one State of the Union, the right to enter every other State whenever they pleased, singly or in companies, without pass or passport, and without obstruction, to sojourn there as long as they pleased, to go where they pleased at every hour of the day or night without molestation, unless they committed some violation of law for which a white man would be punished; and it would give them the full liberty of speech in public and in private upon all subjects upon which its own citizens might speak; to hold public meetings upon political affairs, and to keep and carry arms wherever they went."

[neverdem]

I wonder which Democrats are working together with Republicans to tell the Supreme Court to stand up for our gun rights. They must be a few of the blue-dog southerners who will have to have the approval of their gun-owning constituents next year in the state Congressional elections.

On the Amendment (Coburn Amdt. No. 1067 )

IIRC, half of the rat caucus in the Senate voted for the Coburn Amendment.

Important Message From NRA Chief Lobbyist Chris W. Cox on Attorney General Holder's Recent Remarks Supporting Reinstatement of the Failed 1994 Gun and Magazine Ban

Today in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, 65 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, led by Congressman Mike Ross (D-AR), expressed their opposition to the reinstatement of the failed 1994 ban on semi-automatic firearms and ammunition magazines.

Round up the usual suspects.