Monday, June 28, 2010

Clarence Thomas on MCDONALD v. CHICAGO

As always I look at Clarence Thomas' opinions and have not found myself in disagreement.
(c) The dissents’ objections are addressed and rejected. Pp. 41–44.
JUSTICE THOMAS agreed that the Fourteenth Amendment makes the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms that was recog-nized in District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U. S. ___, fully applicable to the States. However, he asserted, there is a path to this conclusion that is more straightforward and more faithful to the Second Amendment’s text and history. The Court is correct in describing the Second Amendment right as “fundamental” to the American scheme of ordered liberty, Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U. S. 145, 149, and “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and traditions,” Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U. S. 702, 721. But the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, which speaks only to “process,” cannot imposethe type of substantive restraint on state legislation that the Court asserts. Rather, the right to keep and bear arms is enforceable against the States because it is a privilege of American citizenship recognized by §1 of the Fourteenth Amendment, which provides, inter alia: “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.” In inter-preting this language, it is important to recall that constitutional provisions are “ ‘written to be understood by the voters.’ ” Heller, 554

U. S., at ___. The objective of this inquiry is to discern what “ordi-nary citizens” at the time of the Fourteenth Amendment’s ratificationwould have understood that Amendment's Privileges or ImmunitiesClause to mean. Ibid. A survey of contemporary legal authorities plainly shows that, at that time, the ratifying public understood the Clause to protect constitutionally enumerated rights, including the right to keep and bear arms. Pp. 1–34.
this waas found at www.supremecourt.gov

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2 comments:

  1. Richard11:11 AM

    Well, if Giselle is such a proponent of forced breast feeding, perhaps she should have breast fed her own offspring a little longer than three weeks. So... if she intends on restarting I would like to volunteer myself. It's ok everyone. I'll take thay bullet.  Anyway, on a more serious note:

    http://defensenews.com/story.php?i=4735654&c=ASI&s=AIR

    Isn't the world such a happy place? let's all hold hands and sing Kumbayah.

    ReplyDelete
  2. brianbonner1:03 PM

    for more than 6 years I have been warning people about china and no one believed me. I told them they were stealing our secrets and secretly building up there military and that china was not our friend and now they can sink our Aircraft Carriers from 900 miles away and the missile can change course just like the russian balistic missiles. Well, it is too late now, we are goign to have to play catch up now and where will we get the money or the will?

    ReplyDelete

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