Thursday, June 26, 2008

BARACK OBAMA, JOHN MCCAIN

Supreme Court Strikes Down D.C. Gun Ban

The Supreme Court rules D.C.'s gun ban violates the Constitution. Raise your hand if you're surprised the decision was 5-4.

As I understand it, while this is good news for gun owners, there's a string or two attached that might make this not the huge victory that they wanted. Depending on how clear the ruling of the majority is, many states and localities will attempt to rewrite their gun laws in keeping with this decision. There will inevitably be disagreements about whether they are or not, and within the not-too-distant future, we'll see arguments about whether a state law allowing these kinds of guns but not those kinds, etc., violate the Heller decision. A follow-up case seeking to clarify how restrictive state and local gun laws can be will almost inevitably come down the pike in the next few years... and that case may go before a court with a very different makeup.

I expect a lot of discussion about judicial nominations on the trail in coming days, considering that four of the justices ruled that a state cannot sentence a child rapist to the death penalty, but that state can deny almost all of its citizens the right to own a gun. And when asked for his model justices, Obama listed three of those four...

06/26 10:31 AMShare