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SC Didn't rule on "reasonable restrictions."

tr foxtr fox Member Posts: 13,856
edited June 2008 in General Discussion
Stole this from the politics forum posted by new member little acorn:

In his angry protest of the Supreme Court's recent decision finding the DC gun ban unconstitutional, Mayor Bloomberg of NYC said:

"...the court found that the Second Amendment protects an individual's
right to bear arms, while also affirming the constitutionality of
reasonable restrictions...."

It's that last part that many people seem to be getting wrong, about "reasonable restrictions".

The Heller ruling did NOT affirm the constitutionality of "reasonable restrictions". It merely declined to rule on them. Meaning, it neither approved nor disapproved.

What it did do, was declare that the first part of the 2nd amendment ("A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state,") had no effect on the command part ("the RPKBA shall not be infringed."). The first part neither expanded nor restricted that later command. And without expansion or restriction, that command is pretty absolute.

The Supremes left THAT as their (oblique) comment on "restrictions". And they left the question of which restrictions were "reasonable", for future cases in that light.

It's going to be an interesting next few years in the courts as case after case is brought to explore this issue, now that the Heller case is decided the way it was.

Comments

  • nemesisenforcernemesisenforcer Member Posts: 10,513 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    It couldn't rule on everything. It never does. It took NUMEROUS cases to work out the contours of the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendments and years, sometimes decades, of litigation for the various components of an amendment to be defined. The 2nd will be no different. This is the beginning, not the end of the 2nd's case law and court rulings on it.

    Next up is the "reasonable" restrictions of CA, IL, NYC, etc., what constitutues, an "arm," and an "infringment."
  • ElMuertoMonkeyElMuertoMonkey Member Posts: 12,898
    edited November -1
    Ah, some wiseguy will just yell "war on terror" at the top of his lungs as an excuse to ban all guns and we'll have some * agree and say, "Well, our freedoms are being used against us... duh!"
  • dan kellydan kelly Member Posts: 9,799
    edited November -1
    true tr. the next step is to get them to rule on individual things, like are there any firearms that can be restricted...e.g: full auto, is any form of registration legal? there are a lot of questions that need to be answered and now is the time to get it to court before any new justices are appointed who will follow the p.c. line of the democrats. 5 to 4 in favor of heller was very close...it will only take one more liberal judge and there will be problems.
    the rulings on heller left more questions than it gave answers and it does seem as if that was deliberate by the justices, and from what i was reading between the lines, one of them was dropping hints that the court would rule on other questions, but it needed someone to ask them those questions....and quickly!
  • nemesisenforcernemesisenforcer Member Posts: 10,513 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by ElMuertoMonkey
    Ah, some wiseguy will just yell "war on terror" at the top of his lungs as an excuse to ban all guns and we'll have some * agree and say, "Well, our freedoms are being used against us... duh!"


    well, if anyone would know anything about *, it would be the #1 demo/leftist/5th columnist/anti-American stooge on the forum.
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