Constitutional Law

Collective right per se dead

Instapundit makes an excellent point: the traditional "collective rights theory," i.e., that the 2A was a right of States to have a militia, could not muster a single vote on the Court. (In fact, DC didn't even argue it). And that "collective right theory" was what all of the lower court cases were based on (not that that stops Stevens from claiming their support).

The position "that's been the mainstay of gun-control groups, newspaper editorialists, and lower federal courts for decades, and one that was presented by those adherents as so obviously correct that those arguing for an individual right were called "frauds" and shills for the NRA" couldn't get a single vote.

Full post as published by Of Arms and the Law on June 30, 2008 (boomark / email).