Download the Politics Daily Toolbar
Our new toolbar integrates the latest news and analysis into your Web browser and installs in seconds. Download it now!

Politics DailyPolitics Daily

  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • COLUMNISTS
  • TOPICS
  • THE CAPITOLIST
  • WOMAN UP
  • DAILY FLOTUS
  • JUST IN
  • THE CRAM
  • CONTACT
  • Inside Politics Daily

    Reading the SCOTUS Tilt on DC Gun Ban

    Posted:
    03/18/08
    Filed Under:Crime, Guns, Supreme Court
    After the Supreme Court heard oral arguments. The money this afternoon, the smart money seems to be where the smart analysis was all along, namely that the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right, not a collective one. The passage that threw so many off is that clause, "a well regulated militia," which many have taken to mean that individuals have no rights at all, but only ... the state?

    Of course it flies in the face of the Bill of Rights to suggest that anything there protects the state. Against whom, one might ask? The entire thrust of the Bill of Rights is to protect the individual against the state. Clearly, that was the intent here.
    Get the new
    PD toolbar!

    The idea of a collective right -- the state protecting its prerogatives against itself -- is almost as funny as the equally oxymoronic concept of "substantive due process.' Which, I'm sorry to say, has worked its way into the core of the American jurisprudence.

    All that said, it also seems clear that the founders intended this right to be one with limits, as is the first amendment. Both the right of speech and the free exercise of religion have limits. The former finds its limits in obscenity, fraud, slander and incitement to riot.

    But what the Bill of Rights does do is impose a very stern compelling state interest test on any abridgment. You can abridge, but you sure as hell better have a very clear and compelling purpose, and the abridgment must be narrowly tailored to accomplish this purpose.

    Whether the DC gun ban will pass such a test now seems doubtful, especially since the ban seems quite ineffectual in its stated purpose.


    Follow PoliticsDaily On Facebook and Twitter,
    and download the new Politics Daily toolbar!

    Contact Eric Schulzke

    subscribe to: RSS email: Eric Schulzke

    Add your comments

    Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

    When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

    To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

    Avoid hate speech, foul language or a disrespectful tone in your comments. Unwanted comments will be deleted at the discretion of the moderator.

    • Happening Right Now

       

    Other News

     
    News Logo