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Justice Scalia sells out felon gun rights, but on what basis exactly?

By Douglas A. Berman

Here are sets of quotes from the majority opinion in Heller that I have a hard time adding up:We start therefore with a strong presumption that the Second Amendment right is exercised individually and belongs to all Americans.  (Slip op. at 10, emphasis added.) It was plainly the understanding in the post-Civil War Congress that the Second Amendment protected an individual right to use arms for self-defense.  (Slip op. at 44, emphasis added.) As the quotations earlier in this opinion demonstrate, the inherent right of self-defense has been central to the Second Amendment right.  The [DC] handgun ban amounts to a prohibition of an entire class of ?arms? that is overwhelmingly chosen by American society for that lawful purpose...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on June 26, 2008 (boomark / email).