This idiot doesn't get it. This was about the 2nd Amendment!
Posted on 09/27/2008 9:49:41 AM PDT by SmithL
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is no stranger to criticism. He gives as good as he gets.
But two recent critiques of his opinion in the landmark decision guaranteeing people the right keep guns at home for self-defense are notable because they come from respected fellow conservative federal judges.
The judges, J. Harvie Wilkinson of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., and Richard Posner of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, take Scalia to task for engaging in the same sort of judicial activism he regularly disdains.
Wilkinson was interviewed by President Bush in 2005 for a Supreme Court vacancy. His article strongly suggests that the 5-4 decision in Heller v. District of Columbia would have come out differently if he had been chosen for the court. Bush's appointees to the high court, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, joined Scalia's opinion.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
His article strongly suggests that the 5-4 decision in Heller v. District of Columbia would have come out differently if he had been chosen for the court.What part of "shall not be infringed" does he not understand?
Gosh, I think I hear the world's smallest violin playing...
Exactly and doesn’t sound like a conservative judge to me.
Idiot uses Scalia’s dissent in Roe, constructed on no clear constitutional language, to criticize a decision under the 2nd amendment. Not only do we have jihadijournalists blowing themselves up for their political causes, now we have jihadijudges.
Not only did Scalia uphold the Second Amendment from a constructionist perspective, the Supreme Court has final jurisdictional control over the DISCTRICT OF COLUMBIA - where the case was brought in the first place.
The other judge is a whiner and obviously not a strict contructionist.
This idiot doesn't get it. This was about the 2nd Amendment!
“....His article strongly suggests that the 5-4 decision in Heller v. District of Columbia would have come out differently if he had been chosen for the court....”
....and that is precisely WHY he wasn’t chosen for the court.
He has some conservative views, mostly in areas like contract rights, but his parents were Communist Party members, he clerked for Justice Brennan, and he favors partial birth abortion. Plus he was born in NYC, went to Yale, and lives in Chicago, so naturally he thinks gun owners are knuckle-dragging yahoos.
My guess is that some justices think that the US Reports are a higher authority than the US Constitution. Stare decisis is a cancer in systems of civil law - the very principle should be culled from the courts. 2+3=5, and the fact that some student somewhere received full grades previously for stating that 2+2=3 is a poor reason to suggest that 2+3=4. Multiply that error by 30 students and building new errors upon such errors becomes no more palatable.
When the US Reports and US Constitution are in conflict, I would like to remind those on the court what they swear fidelity to when taking the judicial oath.
It is not “judicial activism” to interpret the words of the Constitution in an area where heretofore the Court had been largely silent. For his part, Wilkinson’s record on the bench has been inconsistent. Posner (who, interestingly, is not quoted at all in the AP article) would surprise me, as he is a brilliant man and a scholar of great depth.
Some years back I read of a bumper sticker that said ‘’Mr. politican, what is it you have in mind for me that you’re so damn worried about me owning a gun?’’ We have the right, get over it, go lay on a couch for crazy people, commit Herry Cary.
“Wilkinson said elected officials are in a better position to determine gun laws than the courts”
Using that logic, it must be ok for elected officials to ignore the 1st amendment too when making laws.
Aren’t judges supposed to be active in their defense of the Constitution?
Nah, he’s just getting his name out there and his 15 minutes of fame, in case o-boy becomes POTUS, and the SC happens to have a vacancy.
“Wilkinson said elected officials are in a better position to determine gun laws than the courts”
An unbelievably arrogant statement by a person sitting on the federal bench. This guy is clueless as to what the ultimate authority in this country is.
The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land. Period. EVERYTHING else issues forth from that bedrock point.
When the constitution makes a statement, elected officials do NOT have the right to ignore, disobey or change it.
No wonder this country is going down the tubes. If “conservative” judges have this attitude we’re doomed.
Roe V Wade was based on the so called “right to privacy” which is not in the constitution. The “right to bear arms” is spelled out. Not sure why that is so complicated.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again...a weenie with a gun is still a weenie.
This judge is twisting Scalia's words and philosophy. Scalia believes in the "democratic outlet" to settle matters that aren't specifically addressed in the Constitution. Firearms ownership is specifically addressed in the constitution. This judge sounds like he has an axe to grind.
Thomas Jefferson: "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined or determined to commit crimes. Such laws only make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assassins; they serve to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." (1764 Letter and speech from T. Jefferson quoting with approval an essay by Cesare Beccari)
John Adams: "Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion in private self defense." (A defense of the Constitution of the US)
George Washington: "Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the people's liberty teeth (and) keystone... the rifle and the pistol are equally indispensable... more than 99% of them [guns] by their silence indicate that they are in safe and sane hands. The very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference [crime]. When firearms go, all goes, we need them every hour." (Address to 1st session of Congress)
George Mason: "To disarm the people is the most effectual way to enslave them." (3 Elliot, Debates at 380)
Noah Webster: "Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe." (1787, Pamphlets on the Constitution of the US)
George Washington: "A free people ought to be armed." (Jan 14 1790, Boston Independent Chronicle.)
Thomas Jefferson: "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." (T. Jefferson papers, 334, C.J. Boyd, Ed. 1950)
James Madison: "Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the people of other countries, whose people are afraid to trust them with arms." (Federalist Paper #46)
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