"To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing,
if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?"
-- Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Oh, hells yes:

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a sweeping ban on handguns in the nation’s capital violated the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

The justices voted 5-4 against the ban, with Justice Antonin Scalia writing the opinion for the majority.

At issue in District of Columbia v. Heller was whether Washington’s ban violated the right to “keep and bear arms” by preventing individuals—as opposed to state militias—from having guns in their homes.

“Undoubtedly some think that the Second Amendment is outmoded in a society where our standing army is the pride of our nation, where well-trained police forces provide personal security and where gun violence is a serious problem,” Scalia wrote. “That is perhaps debatable, but what is not debatable is that it is not the role of this court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct.”

Scalia was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, who are all considered conservative voices on the court. Justice Anthony Kennedy, often seen as a swing vote, also joined the majority.

District of Columbia officials argued they had the responsibility to impose “reasonable” weapons restrictions to reduce violent crime, but several Washingtonians challenged the 32-year-old law. Some said they had been constant victims of crimes and needed guns for protection.  See how proponents, opponents argued »

In March 2007, a federal appeals court overturned the ban, which keeps most private citizens from owning handguns and keeping them in their homes.

It was the first time a federal appeals court ruled a gun law unconstitutional on Second Amendment grounds

God, I love judicial activism.  I’ll admit that I was pessimistic.  I thought Scalia or someone would defer to the government.  This is a landmark, the most important decision since Garcia.

Yes!

Update: What’s interesting here is that a lot of libs, including those on the bench, are conceding the point on the Second Amendment.  They’re falling back on the idea that a handgun ban was a reasonable restriction on Second Amendment freedom.  In that sense, gun rights just took a step that the right of free speech and freedom of the press took over the last century, as “reasonable restrictions” on both were struck down.

Update: Further in the CNN article, it notes that 2/3 of Americans believe the Second Amendment is about an individual right and more than half of the current Congress urged the Court to affirm Heller.  Things have changed a lot in the last 30 years.  They must be crying in their coffee at the Brady Center and other such enclaves.