Barack Obama's Toothless Second Amendment
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Barack Obama | Law | Second Amendment — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Jacob Sullum discusses. It's clear that Obama would have preferred D.C.'s tremendously onerous gun ban to remain in effect and if he becomes President, he will do whatever he can legislatively to restrict the right to keep and bear arms.
He'll also try to appoint people to the Supreme Court who would be willing to reverse or severely limit the Supreme Court's ruling in Heller. On this issue, it's important to turn the mike over to Robert Levy, who successfully litigated Heller:
Heller is merely the opening salvo in a series of litigations that will ultimately resolve what weapons and persons can be regulated and what restrictions are permissible. Near term, the Court will also have to decide whether Second Amendment rights can be enforced against state and local governments. Despite those remaining hurdles, it's fair to say that the court's blockbuster decision makes the prospects for reviving the original meaning of the Second Amendment substantially brighter. And given the unfolding presidential contest, it's also fair to say that the court's razor-thin majority conveys a crucial message: Judicial nominations matter.
Yes they do. And by extension, elections matter.
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Barack Obama's Toothless Second Amendment 2 Comments (0 topical, 2 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
And as I said in my "I cant believe I'm doing this" blog posting, that is the issue that has swayed me to vote for McCain. I still think he's going to be a disaster economically and policy wise, and the country's going to be far worse when he leaves than when he comes in. And I still think that a Kennedy is about the best case we'll get from him on SCOTUS appointments, unless he screws up by accident and nominates an actual conservative.
But even Kennedy got about half of the recent cases right. And Heller was 5-4. If it had been 6-3 or 7-2, this would not follow. The Second Amendment is THE check on government power. Without it, or with it severely gutted, it will be time for a reset. On virtually all other issues I could deal with an Obama administration. But not on this one.
I think Obama's view of amendment 2 is educational in regards to his view of any & all civil rights. On the one hand he "agrees" it gives an individual right to own firearms. On the other hand, he has no problem with "commonsense" regulation - read any regulation a government entity says is commonsense. This means that individual rights, in Obama's view, are near worthless. Any regulation deemed by government "commonsense" is ok.