Today the Supreme Court ruled that Chicago's handgun ban violates the right to keep and bear arms. The 5-to-4 decision confirms that the Second Amendment binds state and local governments as well as federal domains such as the District of Columbia, which had a similar gun law that the Court overturned in the landmark 2008 case D.C. v. Heller. The Court ruled that the Second Amendment, like most other protections in the Bill of Rights, applies to the states by way of the 14th Amendment's Due Process Clause. It rejected an invitation to revive the amendment's Privileges or Immunities Clause, a more plausible basis for incorporation.

The decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago is here (PDF). SCOTUS Wiki has the oral argument transcript and other documents related to the case here. Previous Reason coverage here. More later.

Addendum: Regarding the appropriate route for incorporation, Justice Antonin Scalia, an outspoken critic of substantive due process, has this to say in his concurring opinion:

Despite my misgivings about Substantive Due Process as an original matter, I have acquiesced in the Court's incorporation of certain guarantees in the Bill of Rights "because it is both long established and narrowly limited." This case does not require me to reconsider that view, since straightforward application of settled doctrine suffices to decide it.

In his concurring opinion, by contrast, Justice Clarence Thomas makes the case for enforcing the Privileges or Immunities Clause: