Legal Commentary

Oral argument in the DC guns case.

By Ann Althouse

In an argument that ran 23 minutes beyond the allotted time, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy emerged as a strong defender of the right of domestic self-defense. At one key point, he suggested that the one Supreme Court precedent that at least hints that gun rights are tied to military not private needs ? the 1939 decision in U.S. v. Miller ? ?may be deficient? in that respect. With Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Justices Samuel A. Alito, Jr., and Antonin Scalia leaving little doubt that they favor an individual rights interpretation of the Amendment (and with Justice Clarence Thomas, though silent on Tuesday, having intimated earlier that he may well be sympathetic to that view), Kennedy?s inclinations might make him ? once more ? the holder of the decisive vote.

Full post as published by Althouse on March 18, 2008 (boomark / email).