Free by the Score of Five to Four
Krayton Kerns
7.02.08
Thursday June 26th 2008, by a 5-4 decision, the US Supreme Court declared that the Washington DC firearm ban, as argued in DC versus Heller, is unconstitutional.
Originalist US Supreme Court justices view the Constitution exactly as it is written. Justices Scalia and Kennedy (Reagan appointees), Thomas (G.H.W. Bush appointee), Roberts and Alito (G.W. Bush appointees), interpret firearm ownership rights described in the Second Amendment as individual rights. These five judges were the majority opinion in DC vs Heller.
To the contrary, liberal US Supreme Court Justices view the Constitution as a living, breathing document whose interpretation is limited only by ones imagination and prevailing public opinion. Thus, justices Stevens (Ford appointee), Souter (G.H.W. Bush appointee), Breyer and Bader-Ginsburg (Clinton appointees), interpret firearm ownership of the Second Amendment as a collective right referring only to the militia. Their dissenting opinion held that prohibition of firearm ownership is entirely constitutional.
Think about this. In the 2000 presidential election in Florida, had 269 voters switched from Bush to Gore the Supreme Court would be different. A President Gore would likely have passed over originalist jurists like Roberts and Alito for liberal judges like Breyer and Bader-Ginsburg. The DC vs Heller decision then would have been 6-3 in favor of the gun ban.
So I have a question for the gun owners of my legislative district: If you voted for politicians that established a Supreme Court that banned guns, would you surrender your firearms when asked? You see, I wouldn’t…but then I don’t vote in a manner that would allow that to happen in the first place.
In the 2007 Legislative Session we heard HB 340, the Citizens Self-Defense Act. This gun-rights bill simply held that Montanans, in self-defense, could arm and protect themselves without first retreating from danger or calling for police assistance. We passed the bill out of the House only to see it die in the Senate Judiciary Committee. During its 56 day life, HB 340 garnered 232 affirmative votes and amazingly, 28 of those 232 actually came from democrats…not exactly bipartisan support.
Interestingly there was only one democrat legislator that supported HB 340 every time it came up for a vote; Rep. Joey Jayne (D) Arlee. Many others simply jumped onboard with a ‘yes’ vote on Third Reading just so they could claim they support the Second Amendment. That is politics. Could Representative Jayne be so supportive of gun rights because she sees what happened to her tribal ancestors when they surrendered their firearms over a hundred years ago? Once disarmed, her people were infected with the plague of big government socialism; a disease from which they have never recovered.
Have a great Independence Day knowing your freedom is secured by a 5 to 4 vote…for now.
