Litigation

High Court Expands 2nd Amendment Rights

By Peter Hardin

The Constitutional protection of an individual’s right to bear arms under the Second Amendment extends past federal measures to state and local laws, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision Monday.

The decision appears to void a Chicago ordinance barring residents from owning handguns, according to a Los Angeles Times article.

The court struck down two years ago parts of a gun control law in the District of Columbia. That decision involved only federal law, and the District is a federal enclave. Prior Supreme Court decisions going back to the 19th Century stated that the Second Amendment does not apply to states, and the court did not tackle in 2008 the validity of those precedents (see Gavel Grab).

For gun rights advocates, today’s ruling came as “an enormous symbolic victory…but its short-term practical impact is unclear,” the New York Times reported. As in the 2008 decision, the newspaper said, “the justices left for another day the question of just what kinds of gun control laws can be reconciled with Second Amendment protection. The majority said only that the right to keep handguns for self-protection at home is constitutionally protected.”

Writing the majority opinion,  Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said that the Second Amendment right “applies equally to the federal government and the states,” an Associated Press article stated.

The ruling was issued at the court’s final sitting of the term, when the court was touched with sadness, according to a Fox News report. Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. announced the passing (see Gavel Grab) of Martin Ginsburg, the husband of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and read a letter that honored retiring Justice John Paul Stevens.

In other rulings, the high court took these actions:

• Declined to consider an appeal of a landmark lower court ruling that found the tobacco industry guilty of racketeering for scheming to defraud the public about the dangers of cigarette smoking, according to a Dow Jones article.
• Agreed to weigh a challenge to an Arizona law that sanctions employers for hiring illegal immigrants knowingly. It is not the same statute as a recent one that President Obama and some in his administration have criticized publicly.
• Upheld the constitutionality of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 but said procedures set for removal of members of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board were unconstitutional. It was a defeat for Elena Kagan, who as solicitor general had argued the government’s case, a New York Times article said.
• Rejected an immunity appeal by the Vatican over a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse of minors by priests in the United States, according to a Reuters report.
• Said a public law school in California did not infringe the rights of a Christian student group by denying  recognition because the group limited participation by gays, according to Bloomberg.

Full post as published by The Gavel on June 28, 2010 (boomark / email).